How to Earn the Girl Scout Brownie Home Scientist Badge (It's Your World-Change It Brownie Quest Journey)

Updated April 2023

The world of science is a fascinating one. There is so much to explore and uncover, yet study after study has shown that girls lose interest in this school subject. While there are many reasons for this gender gap, we as Girl Scout leaders do not have to encourage it.

The Home Scientist badge will get your girls to see that science is not just something that takes place in school or in a laboratory…it is all around them!

After deciding which experiments you wish to do with your girls, I strongly suggest trying it our at home beforehand to make sure it will work. While science is about trying, failing,and trying again, if you figure out why it did not work for you at home, you can help steer the girls in the right direction if what they are trying is not working out. You will look like a science expert!

Image from Pixabay and used by the author in Canva

Step 1 Be a Kitchen Chemist

The girls might not think about baking being science, but it is. Bread rises due to the yeast, cakes rise from the baking powder, and if you have ever had anything come out of the oven all wrong, it is more than likely to have happened because you did not follow the directions to the letter or your oven was set to the incorrect temperature.

While you probably do not have time to bake due to time and location restraints, there are experiments with food that you can do within the time limits of a troop meeting.

You can make butter. Give each girl a baby food jar filled with heavy cream, a bit of salt, and a marble. Have them shake it until butter forms.

This can also be a game. Instead of giving each girl her own jar, do it for half the troop. Give one to every other girl, put on some music for them to shake it to. Stop the music, and they have to pass it to the next child.

When it is done, have the girls spread it on bread or crackers that you have purchased.

Here are some links for other fun food experiments:

10 Kitchen Science Experiments for Kids

Simple Experiments and Activities for Youth

Step 2 Create Static Electricity

We all have had our share of bad hair days when the weather is dry and our hair stands up when we take off our hat. Or maybe you went out and did not realize that a sock was stuck to the back of your dress.

And who has not had the fun of shocking someone when they rub their feet across the carpet?

Girls are going to love doing this step of the Home Scientist Try It. 

Here are resources for experiments:

Create Static Electricity

Science Made Simple (three different activities)
Salt and Pepper Dance Activity

Step 3 Dive Into Density

Here is a fun density experiment to try.

Does an Orange Float or Sink?   

Step 4 Make Something Bubble Up

Image created by the author in Canva

Oh, the pure joy that bubbles bring to children. Whether it is making them or blowing them, there is a magic to bubbles that kids simply adore.

Here is a fantastic resource for bubble experiments:

Bubble Science Experiments

Step 5 Science Play

Here are some fun things for your girls to make and take!

How to Make Slime  

Homemade Silly Putty

What have you done to earn the Girl Scout Brownie Home Scientist badge?