100 Brownies at Google
Technology is for everyone. Thatās why 100 Brownies from Girlguiding LaSER visited Google UK to learn digital skills for their future and complete Girlguidingās Digital discovery UMA, created with Googleās engineers.
Izzy Atwood, assistant leader at the 1st New Haven Brownie Unit, told us all about their amazing day at Google UK. Read about it below!
We had the amazing opportunity to take 10 of our Brownies to the Google office in London. Iām not sure who was more excited, the girls or the leaders!āÆ
The girls got to play with technology and coding in a way that was fun for them - something that helped them really get engaged. They had a blast experimenting with each piece of tech and trying to find answers to make things work how they wanted them to, whether that was how to make the spherical robot flash rainbow colours and spin ālike crazyā or how to make the Lego sensor āmake a fart noiseā when it saw something red.
Watching the Brownies be excited by what technology could do was like watching a spark go off in their brain; if they could make a robot dance to Taylor Swift, what else could they do?āÆ
By the end of the day, many of the girls had scribbled on their badge to change it from āguestā to āworkerā and more than a few were determined to work in tech when they were older. While Iām sure the updated name badges wouldnāt quite fool security, that felt like a great testament to how much they had been inspired by the day and enjoyed the activities.
One big emphasis of the day was busting myths about the people in tech and the kinds of things they do. As well as having fun, it was about the girls seeing themselves in those positions and doing fantastical things.
We also wanted the visit to serve as an opportunity for the girls to connect with female role models working in tech. Girlguidingās 2021 Girlsā attitudes survey found that a third (34%) of girls aged 7-21 feel that thereās a lack of women in STEM subjects, with too few women in this area. By connecting the girls with Googleās engineers we hoped to begin to address those concerns and remove some of the barriers preventing girls and young women pursuing STEM subjects.
Itās amazing that being a part of Girlguiding gives girls and young women opportunities like this to explore and engage. Girls see new possibilities opening up for them and it gives them the confidence to go for it. We had a fantastic day and I would love to see more events like this in the future!
- Issy Attwood, assistant leader at the 1st New Haven Brownie Unit
Today the girls have seen what technology jobs are available to them as a career and have broken down gender stereotypes.
— Yvonne, leader from 9th Selsdon Brownie Unit
It was exciting and Iād do it again!
— Brownie
The lego session was fabulously inspirational!
— Louise, leader from Girlguiding Middlesex South West County
Girls in your unit can also explore the concepts needed in a digital world, by completing unit meeting activities from the new āDigital discoveryā topic. These have been created with Google and count towards minutes for the āSkills for my futureā theme award.
Rainbows will explore app design through Happy appy. Brownies will find out about coding and fixing bugs through Brownie bots. Guides will design chatbots using Chattermatter and Rangers will design their own phone with Build-a-phone.
You donāt need to be a digital whizz or use any tech to do them. Download the UMAs for free.
Thank you Google UK for showing us that technology really is for everyone, to the Girlguiding Volunteers who brought their units along. Thank you also to Tasha Best (@tashabestphoto) and Girlguiding Hambledon for the photos from the day.