MSET in a Box - Girl Scouts Presents...

On Saturday, March 13, the Women at Work Museum was bustling with the sounds of the Attleboro area girl scouts at work. These girl scouts, ranging from daisies to seniors, about six to fourteen, were busy presenting their exhibits and workshops in math and science, based on the museums on-going theme of Women in Math, Science, Engineering and Technology. Their hands-on, creatively displayed activities engaged many kids, who found the building and playing and general “messing around” fun and informational.

Ms. Dee DeForest, President of the Service Unit for Girl Scouts in Attleboro, and Ms. Chris Pepper, Troop Activity Consultant for the Service Unit of Attleboro, organized this event. About eight different exhibits were set up, with plenty of daisies, brownies, cadets, and seniors to run them. The exhibits ranged from taking apart and rebuilding household tools to following the path of oxygen as it travels through the bloodstream.

  “Girls Invent”, the sign reads. Around the table are four or five kids, busy at work. Eight-year old Ryan, for example, took apart and put back together a dustbuster “mostly by myself.” Six-year old Samantha built a “robotic arm”. She had to “drill holes into tongue depressors” with the help of Kathy Gasbarro, the adult working the station. She points out a poster, covered in pictures of famous inventors, which stands behind the table, but most of the kids are engaged in building, gluing, constructing their own toys.

Next to this table is “ Math Wiz and Math Fun”. “ This is the math table.” introduces Cindy Tangney. A few younger kids are sticking toothpicks into gumdrops, constructing different polyhedrons. “They pick the shapes they want to make.” Another part of the table is dedicated to finding the measurements of their different body parts. Next to that, Danarsha, a girl scout for six years, sits with four jars. Each contain a different item, clothespins, fuzzy balls, seeds, and marbles. Samantha tells me shes “guessing that there are 51 clothespins, 10001 seeds, 61 marbles, and 81 pompoms.” Emily, a member of troop 955, tells me that “ you hafta guess how much is in the jars”

The third table is one of the busiest. Aptly named “Dream it up”, Alex tells me that “ you hafta build structures out of spaghetti and marshmallow and hold six different balls in it.” She sits with a big bowl of marshmallows and a table covered in bits of spaghetti. As the day progresses, she is the only one to build a structure that holds the heaviest of the balls, a basketball, btu the younger kids persevere and pride in their sticky, somewhat lopsided structures that they labored over. Next to all the macaroni is a stack of yellow paper, so that the children could “ draw whatever you could invent.”

The next table, called Senses, seems to be one of the most fun. Melissa, leader of Brownie troop 152, tells me that they are “having a ball”. Blindfolded, the kids use their senses of smell, touch, and taste to distinguish what they are being given or fed.  Although I’m tempted to join in, I move to the set up behind this one.

Hidden in the darker alcove, this exhibit is labeled “Lights and Mirrors”. The senior girl scouts use light, mirrors, and prisms to delight and amaze the younger kids. “You can change the color of the light with colored paper,” Rebecca says. All the kids are intrigued by the “magic” the girls are making, so I slip out and move to the next exhibit.

“Bags of Tricks”, complete with puzzles, anagrams, and an assortment of games, is run by Christine Curran and Melissa Messere.