Easy Badge and Journey Adaptations for Virtual Troop Meetings

Easy Adaptations for Virtual Troop Meetings

In-person troop meetings are amazingly fun, but virtual meetings can offer a whole range of new ways to engage your Girl Scouts, your guests, and families!

Check out these proven tips for adapting your badge or award activities to a virtual setting with your girls.

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Breakout rooms: If your virtual meeting software allows it, separate girls into smaller “breakout rooms.” For younger girls, ask a parent or caregiver to sit in on each breakout room to help the girls stay on track.
Chat Leaders: Appoint two girls as the conversation leaders and mute the rest of the troop. The conversation leaders pose questions to the troop to get things started. The other girls should use the chat (or a virtual whiteboard) to respond. The conversation leaders read out the chat comments, make connections, and share any new ideas the chat comments might inspire. Rotate chat leaders times during the meeting.
Small group virtual meetings: If you can’t do breakout rooms, simply set up three or four simultaneous virtual meetings (each with its own log-in). At the start of your troop meeting, break girls into small group and provide each with a new “small group” meeting log-in and assign an adult volunteer to help each group. Set a time limit to make sure that everyone comes back to the original meeting at the same time.
Parent and girl partners: For younger girls, ask each girl to invite a supportive adult to the meeting to be her discussion partner.

Trips

Online Virtual Tours: Find a virtual tour, inspired by the badge requirements. Ideally, you want a tour with lots of options for clicking into different paths on the tour. Allow girls to lead the exploration, deciding where and when to click.
Virtual Reality Tours: If you and your troop have access to virtual reality goggles (such as Google Cardboard), find a VR tour, and explore the ocean, a foreign city, go on a hike, or even a new planet!
Photo tours: Invite a guest to your meeting to share a photo tour. The girls can ask questions while listening to stories and looking at the person’s photos or videos. Consider a museum docent, a family member who has visited a national park or international destination that your girls are interested in, or local tour guide.

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Virtual guests are even easier to find than in-person ones! Remember that you can invite a guest from anywhere in the world. Speak to them in advance so that they understand what you would like them to do in your meeting.

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Tip: Encourage girls to share their ideas for how they can meet specific badge requirements in a virtual setting. It’s a great way to keep things girl-led and they’ll be more engaged in the content if their creative thinking helped to shape it.

Plus, visit explore the activity pages on Girl Scouts at Home for examples of how specific badge steps can be accomplished virtually.

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Easy Adaptations for Virtual Troop Meetings