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Home The Girl Scout Project started in June 1999. IEEE members Lynn Simms and John Cross approached the Council to sponsor a project suitable for Girl Scouts that could interest them in electricity and electronics. The result was a program designed to be presented to Girl Scouts at the middle school level.
This program was designed to introduce electricity to Girl Scouts. The program attempts to teach electricity in an intuitive manner; it was developed to remove the semi-magical notions that many people have about electricity.
To schedule this program for your Girl Scout unit or other youth organization, please contact Adeeb Hamzey ( ). The handbook is available in Adobe PDF format by clicking here. Please be patient, it is a 1.35 MB download.
This program supports elements of the Commonwealth of Virginia Standards of Learning for Eighth Grade Physical Science: PS.11, PS.6 and PS.10.
Section 1 of the program introduces the notions of circuit, voltage and current, safe and dangerous current levels, conductors, semi-conductors, and insulators, and problems with electricity and water used together. A 9 volt battery, an ammeter, and a glass baking dish with some water in it are used for Section 1.
Section 2 of the program uses a bicycle-driven alternator to demonstrate the power required to generate electricity and to sustain light and heavy loads. A load assembly with several light bulbs and switches is used with the bicycle-alternator to provide a variable electrical load.
Section 3 is a demonstration of a teaching motor. The motor shows interacting magnetic fields and commutation. This section uses a device which can be an AC or DC motor and generator, along with a power supply and a permanent magnet.
Section 4 of the program shows the operation of transformers and explains why the utilities use them. An exhibit containing transformers and loads accompanies this section.
Section 5 involves the participants in making an alternator that is cheap enough for everyone to take one home. This part of the program requires about 3-4 hours to execute and should have the other parts of the program interspersed within it, especially during times when cement is setting.