- Fulfills Steps 1, 2, and 3 of GSUSA Budding Entrepreneur badge requirements.
- Fulfills Steps 1, 2, and 3 of GSUSA Business Jumpstart badge requirements.
Items Needed:
- Paper
- Pens or pencils
- Troop Coloring Supplies (crayons, markers, or colored pencils)
- (Optional) Picture books, magazines, or internet access for additional inspiration
Instructions (Estimated Total Time: 40 minutes):
- Choose a Design Setting (2–3 minutes)
- As a troop, scouts vote on which place they want to focus on for their invention ideas:
- Home (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, chores)
- Meeting Space or Outdoors (doors, lights, benches, playgrounds)
- Community (parks, sidewalks, traffic crossings)
- Once chosen, they’ll use that setting to guide their brainstorming.
- As a troop, scouts vote on which place they want to focus on for their invention ideas:
- Brainstorm an Idea (5–7 minutes)
- Scouts think about their chosen place and look for small problems to solve.
- They ask themselves:
- What bugs me here?
- What could be easier or safer?
- What would be fun to improve?
- Then they come up with invention (a product they can make to sell) or service (something people could hire them to do) ideas that help with that problem.
- Get it Down on Paper (5–7 minutes)
- Each scout picks their favorite idea and write or draw their idea. Ideas don’t need to be perfect, just a way to show how the invention or service would work.
- Reflect & Share (20 minutes)
- Scouts present their ideas to the group (one minute or less per scout) and talk about:
- What their invention does
- What inspired them
- What part was most fun or tricky
- The group responds with two things:
- One thing they liked about the idea
- One thing they think could be improved
- Scouts present their ideas to the group (one minute or less per scout) and talk about:
- Regroup (5 minutes)
- Scouts take the feedback they got and write down or draw the changes they had.
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