Basic Meeting Plans are designed to have minimal supplies and still hit the GSUSA Requirements. Most meetings can be done in a 90 minute time frame.
Items needed:
- Paper for each scout
- Pen/Pencil for each scout
- Troop coloring supplies (markers, crayons, or colored pencils)
- Printout of Two Week Tracker for each scout
- Printout of Sample of Sleep Data for each scout (or scout group)
- Printout of Sample Water Intake Data for each scout (or scout group)
- Blank Bar Chart for each scout (or scout group)
- One copy of Sample of Bar Chart
- One copy of Sleep Bubble Chart
- One copy of 6 Shoes Vogue Recommends
- 2-3 Blank App Screens from GSUSA for each scout (or scout group)
- Senior App Form for each scout (or scout group)
- A device that can show the webpages: Stat Crunch, Better Sleep.org, and Sisense.com OR Printout of Advanced Data Visualization Examples from GSUSA
Note to Leaders – You can learn more about Data Visualization with the full Habit Tracker activity. This Basic Plan is a summary of the full activity, which covers 4 of the 5 requirements.
Create Data
Info Needed: Measurable habits are things that can be attached to a unit of measurement.
Action Needed: Choose a habit you want to change that is measured in units or measured in hours/minutes of the day. Each scout must fill out their own Two Week Tracker to take home and try and track their own data.
(Requirement 3 Earned)
Data Visualization
Info Needed: There are a lot of ways to display data, and most of them use charts, graphs, and tables. To go a step farther, you can use Bubble Charts, Maps, Timelines, or Steam Graphs.
Action Needed: Show the webpages: Stat Crunch, Better Sleep.org, and Sisense.com for some visual examples of Data Visualization (OR Show the Printout of Advanced Data Visualization Examples). Then give each scout (or small group of scouts) a Blank Bar Chart and supplies to write. Ask them to create a Bar Chart with the data given in the Sample of Sleep Data.
(Requirement 1 Earned)
Data Analysis
Info Needed: The Bar Chart should show what categories are highest for the 35 high schoolers asked. Sample of Bar Chart page 1 can be used to compare their results. However, the Sample of Sleep Data also included information on the grade level. If we wanted to include that second set of data – we need to change the bar graph somehow. Show them page 2 where the dots are colored based off the grade level. Show them the Sleep Bubble Chart. In the Bubble Chart, all we did was move our dots in the Bar Graph into groups and gave an outline circle of them in a style showing what category they belonged.
Question needed: Which helps them notice patterns better? Why?
Action Needed: Give each scout (or small group of scouts) a Sample Water Intake Data sheet. Explain that Person 1 is a teen who drinks 2-4 16.9 oz. bottles of water per day. Person 2 is a teen who drink 2-3 23.6 oz. bottles of water per day. Person 2 thinks her larger water bottles are better. Ask them to make a visualization comparing the two sets of data. It can be any chart, graph, table, or image.
(Requirement 4 Earned)
Write Data Objects
Info Needed: Data Objects store multiple lists of data. Variables like arrays and data objects create a kind of data portrait of an individual or group. It can be used to show you places you’ve visited, identify things you might want based on websites you’ve viewed, or give you answers to a quiz online.
Action Needed: Use a blank piece of paper and follow the instructions to write JavaScript Data Objects to list the 6 Shoes Vogue Recommends.
(Requirement 2 Earned)
Habit Tracking App
Info Needed: Remember, when you design something keep in mind who is going to use it. If you design an app for kids, it should be simple and easy for a kid to use. If you design an app for a doctor, it should be able to give them all the data they need, or connect them to their patients easily. The app you make all depends on who is going to use it.
Action Needed: Use the Blank App Screens and Senior App Forms to have scouts draw what their app screen (with a specific user in mind) and write down specific design features it would have. It should have a main screen for where to put in data, and a sample of what it would look like when it gives a data visualization of the data tracked. They can work individually or in groups.
(Requirement 5 Earned)
Meeting End
Scouts can keep adding new features and screens for their app until it’s time to go home.
General Notes
Note to Leaders – No Basic Plan compiled by The Badge Archive will earn multiple badges in one level. Part of being budget friendly is not costing more than the price of one official GSUSA badge per meeting.
Some badges will take two meetings to finish. This helps scouts enjoy activities and keeps the troop budget in mind by only needing one GSUSA badge for every two meetings. Troops may choose to get a fun patch for one of the meetings if scouts want a badge/patch for every meeting. Scouts can earn the fun patch if they only attend one meeting and get a fun patch and the official badge if they go to both.
The Badge Archive 
