Tia Kennard

Woods Hike

A day hike through a local forest or wooded area to help youth explore the woodland ecosystem, practice basic trail navigation, and enjoy being fully disconnected in nature.

A local day hike through a city or neighborhood to help youth explore the built environment, discover new urban features, and understand that outdoor adventure can start right outside their front door.

Snow Hike

A winter day hike to help youth explore how snow and ice transform the trail, learn the basics of cold-weather safety and layering, and discover how nature adapts to freezing temperatures.

Rain Hikes

A day hike during or immediately following a rainstorm to explore how water transforms the natural environment, practice wet-weather trail safety, and learn the proper gear choices required to stay warm and dry.

Heritage/Historical Hike

A heritage day hike through your local town or city center (using Old Town Spring, Texas, as a working example) to discover historical markers, understand how the community was founded, and learn about the people who shaped the area.

Beach Hike

A coastal day hike to help youth explore shoreline ecology, understand the unique physical challenges of walking on sand, and learn how tides affect a beach environment.

UV Night Hike

An ultraviolet (UV) night hike to discover the hidden fluorescent world of arachnids, insects, and fungi, helping youth understand the difference between reflection and fluorescence in nature.

Night Hikes

A guided night hike to help youth explore sensory adaptations, test their night vision, and safely observe the nocturnal sights, sounds, and active wildlife of the trail after sunset.

Investiture – 1913 Ceremony

An adapted modern day ceremony using the same format as the original investiture ceremony in the 1913 handbook (pp. 125–126).

GSUSA – New Leaders: About Badges

This guide outlines the official sources for badge information and explains how badge requirements can be interpreted within your troop and how you can track them.

2026 Summer Progress

We have some important updates to share regarding the structure of our websites and the progress we’ve made on our massive summer revamp project.

2011 – J/C: Cybersecurity Safeguards

Keep your online information safe with passwords, information sharing rules, knowing about metadata, and who to trust. Then create a visual digital footprint.

2011 – J/C/S/A: Space Science

Learn about constellations and star classification and do a star hunt, a visible and invisible light experiment, share info about telescope tech, be a light pollution advocate, understand Earth rotation and visually see the size/distance of planets. Then Explore alien worlds and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, before doing a deeper dive on one topic and…

2011 – J/C/S/A: Girl Scout Way

C/S/A teach Junior scouts a meaningful GS song, about the GS Week traditional holiday, and how the GS Law can make a difference, then they celebrate the GS Birthday and WTD, explore a tradition, created a list of 10 ideas, and do one environmental camp project.

Author: Tia Kennard