Earning the Brownie Girl Scouts Water Everywhere Try-It

Water is all around us. We use it to drink, cook with, and bathe in. Other animals and plants also use water to live in and grow with. What all is water used for? What things can live in the water? What are some properties of water? Help girls earn the Water Everywhere Try-It to answer these questions. To earn this Try-It, girls must complete 4 activities. There are some activities that can be done indoors and some that need to be done outdoors near a pond or stream. Keep this in mind when planning your meeting. You might choose to hold the meeting at a park and then just go all of the activities outdoors. This Try-It can best be accomplished as a troop provided you get the location and items necessary available for the girls at a meeting or overnight.

1. Made of Water
Because this activity does not involve a water source, you can do this during any downtime at the meeting. Or if it is an overnight excursion, you can do this indoors once it starts to get dark. You will need several different types of empty food containers. The girls will need to be able to read the list of ingredients to see if water is an ingredient in the item. Try getting containers from different food groups and comparing the ingredients to the other foods. Also, you may want to mention to them that the higher on the ingredient list, the more of that ingredient is in the product. So, if they find water near the top of the list, that is one of the main ingredients in that product. You can have several different packages and split the troop into smaller groups and share at the end if you wish.

2. Water Layers
This is another activity that can be done at a table during downtime or indoors during an overnight. This activity will show some properties of water and salt. The girls might have even heard about floating in the Dead Sea because of all the salt in that sea. Well, this experiment will give them a close glance at these properties. You will need: 2 glasses, warm water, container of salt, food coloring, spoon, and measuring cup. The girls should be able to complete this if they have a set of directions they can read. So, you can split the girls up and have them working in pairs if you have enough glasses (or they can do it individually as well). 1 cup of the warm water needs to go in one glass. Salt can slowly be added and stirred until no more salt will dissolve and it is at the bottom of the glass. Add some food coloring to the salty water. Then, hold the spoon to the top of the water and very slowly pour in 1 cup of fresh water (without salt) onto the spoon. The fresh water will stay on top because it is not as heavy as the salt water. Now, do this in reverse with the salt water being added to the fresh water and see what happens. Then try again using cold salty water to add to warm fresh water. Make sure the girls can see all the differences in the experiment variables.

3. Water Explorer
Now, here is where you get to go explore a pond or stream and have some fun. You will need a strainer and a plastic bowl, preferably white so you can see what you collect. If the stream or pond has an easy point of entry where the girls can get down to water level to collect some water, they carefully allow them to do this. However, if there are large banks that would make it difficult for them to gather up water, make sure you can get this for them. You will need to check this out ahead of time when choosing your location. What they need to do is to dip the strainer into the water source and then dump anything they find into the white bowl. Then the girls can take time looking at the creatures and plants that they have found in their strainer. If each girl is able to have a strainer at the same time, it is nice to compare what they get from different spots. If not, they can take turns and show each other during their turn. If possible, also have them overturn a few rocks to see if there is anything under or on the rocks. They should always remember when they are finished exploring, they need to leave the area as they found it.

4. Water Snooper
Depending on your troop size, you can split the group up into two and have part of the girls work on this one and part of the girls work on #3 and then switch. For this activity, you will need a large can, plastic wrap, and a rubber band. Ahead of time you will want to remove both ends of the can. Either you or the girls can cover one end with the plastic wrap and secure it with the rubber band. The water snooper is built and ready. The girls will then take this snooper and put the covered end of the can into the water. The bottom must go down into the water, not rest on the top. The plastic wrap and water combination will magnify what is in the water and they should be able to move it around slowly and see what they can find.

For those of you who are unable to go to a pond or stream or would rather bypass those sections, there are many other things you can do. For instance, go online to a kid friendly website about water conservation. Gather up some facts about water usage and print them off. Have each girl practice conserving water better at home. Another thing to do is to measure a leaky faucet by placing a measuring cup underneath and see how quickly it fills up. Whether they are indoors or outdoors, girls can learn about the water that is everywhere!


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