Home Scientist (Brownie Try-it)

The Home Scientist Try-it is part of the “It's Your World - Change It!” badge set introduced in 2011.

For the badges released in 2011, scouts must complete all of the activities listed to earn the badge.

Activity #1: Be a Kitchen Chemist

 * Make your own ice cream. Our scouts really loved making their own ice cream! The Girl Scout website now has a recipe for “Kick the Can” Ice Cream or you can make ice cream in a bag.. Ask the girls why you need salt to make ice cream? Why doesn't it make the ice cream melt, like it does snow? Answer.


 * Make your own red cabbage pH tester then test different kitchen chemicals (baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) with it. My daughter had fun doing this, then adding antacids like crushed Tums or Alka Seltzer to see how the colors changed again.


 * Make your own pH paper. This could be done at the same time as the one above, using some of the cabbage water. If you want to do the painting part, girls would need to make it at one meeting, let the paper dry, and paint it at a different meeting.

Activity #2: Create Static Electricity
The activities in the binder were fast, so we did all three.

Activity #3: Dive into Density

 * 9-layer density test (see picture above). Our Brownies loved this! They liked seeing everything stay in its own layer and were trying to find other objects around the room to add to it to see what would happen! We left out the lamp oil (flammable), but used all of the other items. You only need about 1/4 cup (or less) of each of the liquids:
 * Large clear glass jar or vase
 * Honey
 * Corn syrup
 * Maple syrup
 * Milk
 * Dish soap
 * Water
 * Vegetable oil
 * Rubbing alcohol
 * Bolt, screw, or nail
 * Popcorn kernels
 * Game die
 * Cherry or grape tomato
 * Pony beads
 * Plastic bottle cap (this floated at first until it filled up with liquid, then sank to the appropriate level)
 * Ping pong ball


 * Sugar water density rainbow

Activity #4: Make Something Bubble Up

 * Alka Seltzer rockets. Rocket_200px.jpg badge book talks about this, but here is a great website with more details, plus a template to make your film canister look like a miniature rocket Alka_Seltzer_rocket.pdf. Since everyone is using digital cameras, it is hard to find the film canisters now.. We ended up ordering some online from Science Bob Store.

Activity #5: Play with Science

 * Make Your Own Silly Putty. There are lots of recipes online, such as this one from Steve Spangler website. Check out the little History of Silly Putty blurb at the bottom of this page. Our silly putty didn't turn out so well. Whichever recipe you use, test it out first to make sure you have the right proportions of ingredients!
 * Magnetic Silly Putty. So after we've made our own silly putty, we were going to go on and make magnetic silly putty Steve Spanglerwith some iron filings and small magnets purchased on Amazon. Given that the silly putty recipe may not work out, you may just want to buy the real deal to do this second experiment.

Additional Resources
Candy Experiments. A whole website with experiments using candy.