Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Girl Scouts and the Car Sense Badge


Scheduling a class in November for outside can be a little risky in Pennsylvania, but I'm happy to say that November 8th was a balmy 65 degrees with full sun. Thank goodness, because I was teaching the Car Sense badge to 81 girl scouts and their 30 troop leaders.

As interesting as I think my lecture is, I knew that the girls wanted to get outside and get their hands dirty. So, we spent a half hour going over the different components the girls would be checking and then headed out into the warm weather.

While it was a little crazy with about 15 vehicles being worked on, the worksheet was pretty easy to follow and I found myself answering questions about what some of the things were under the hood and if it was a problem if there was no oil on the dipstick....Yikes!

The girls checked oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering and washer fluid levels. They learned how to check tire pressure and where to find the proper reading on the vehicle and in the owner's manual. From there they had to look up different things in their owner's manual so that I knew that they could find it.

Overall it was a great day. Of course I need to thank Theresa for coming with me and being a trooper  answering questions and helping with the groups, it made my job a lot easier with so many girls.

Everyone had a good time and learned about important things that anyone can check on their vehicles. Thanks again to the Eastern Region of Pennsylvania Girl Scouts and Linda Delenick for putting this program together and working with LSYE so that girls can see that women do these jobs too!

Lori