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Dublin, 28/03/2018 – Forty-seven Cork Girl Guides are among the first girls to earn Irish Girl Guides’ new engineering badge, which was launched last month in partnership with Engineers Ireland.
The girls, aged 10-14, from Kinsale Guides, St Peter’s Guides, Bandon, and St Barbara’s Guides, Ballincollig, took part in a series of engineering tasks during a weekend camp at Cuskinny Court Group Activity Centre, Cobh.
One activity involved making a mechanical hand out of recycled materials. In patrols (groups), the girls had to brainstorm, draw and construct a hand, using materials like toilet rolls, straws, string and yogurt cartons.
Another task was to consider what problems we would face in 50 years’ time and come up with solutions. Some patrols came up with solutions to reduce pollution while others concentrated on recycling. Other problems tackled included online schooling, teleportation jewellery, cloning and genetic modification.
Another activity involved taking part in an oil spill clean-up experiment, so the girls could study the environmental damage caused by oil spills and how difficult it is for engineers to find ways to clean up spills. Writing in a blog on the Irish Girl Guides’ website, some of the girls wrote, “Each patrol had a basin of water, a feather (to represent a bird), a pom-pom ball (to represent a sea creature), a teaspoon of cooking oil, a drop of food colouring (to represent a chemical spill) and an ice-pop stick oil tanker.
“To make our oil spill, we put the boat, bird and sea creature into the water. Then we added the oil and the ‘chemical’. We noticed that the oil was sitting on top of the water and the colouring spread across the surface. We had to find a way to clean up the pollutants before they reached the beaches (the sides of the basin). We chose from a selection of straws, sponges, cotton wool, cloth and cardboard cut into small pieces. We found it almost impossible to remove all the oil from the water with absorbers and skimmers. In the end we added soap (washing up liquid) which formed an emulsion with the oil and water and helped us to clean up the oil.”
The girls greatly enjoyed taking part in the engineering activities and were delighted to be among the first members of Irish Girl Guides to achieve the new engineering badge.
Irish Girl Guides welcomes new members from age 5+ and adult volunteers from age 18+. To find out more, see www.irishgirlguides.ie, email info@irishgirlguides.ie or tel: 01 6683898.
ENDS
Contact:
Fiona Murdoch, Communications Officer, Irish Girl Guides
Email: communications@irishgirlguides.ie
Tel: 085 8570565
Notes for editors:
Irish Girl Guides has approximately 12,000 members. Guiding started in Ireland in 1911 and operates throughout the 26 counties with 1,800 volunteer leaders providing an informal educational programme of fun and challenging activities that foster confidence and leadership skills in girls and young women, enabling them to develop to their full potential and to become responsible citizens. Girls from age 5+ can choose to earn a wide range of badges, including Community Action, Cultural Diversity, Disability Awareness, Drug Awareness, Online Surfer, Science Investigator and Global Traveller.