Mechanical Engineering Leap Bots for Girl Scout Brownies

We decided to try this badge on a whim with our girls. It wasn’t a badge that they were wishing to do, but they also seemed to only want to focus on outdoor or field trip badges. Needing a little break from field trips and with the weather turning cold, we decided to try out the new mechanical engineering badges. We thought we’d start with Leap Bots since it seemed like an easier one for the girls to create but with lots of problem solving and thinking.

What is a Leap Bot?

A leap bot is a decorated spool. Pretty simple. Well, it’s a decorated spool that jumps. You can use the Goldieblox Making Things Zoom kit. This kit has all the pieces you will need to make and decorate a Leap bot. However, we had some difficulty obtaining enough kits for all our girls and even purchasing them was way too expensive. Using the alternative Girl Scout leap bot design, we found we could explore leap bots much cheaper.

The trick to using the alternative materials is offering different sizes of spools and/or different sizes of springs for the scouts to test. They can play around with the different sizes before picking one spool to decorate as a leap bot. Below is the most basic leap bot configuration before your scouts decorate them.

Needed Materials

If you opt for the Glodieblox Kit, you will need the Glodieblox Making Things Zoom kit. This same kit allows your scouts to build all three mechanical engineering challenges, including the leap bot. However, you can also make your own kits pretty easily. A quick trip to your local hardware store will do just the trick. Each scout or pair of scouts will need:

• 1 wooden dowel. We found the best luck with the 1/4in dowels so they would fit inside the spools. Alternatively, you could use straws, BBQ skewers, unsharpened pencils, etc. (Note to Volunteers: Make sure the dowels fit in the spools.)
• a spool (Note to Volunteers: While girls will only need one spool to build a Leap Bot, offering a variety of spools in different sizes will give girls the chance to engineer individual designs and test out different solutions.) 
• 1 piece of heavy cardboard (6 inch x 6 inch square). You can do without this. We cut up a few Amazon delivery boxes.
• 1 compression spring (Note to Volunteers: Make sure the spring fits over the dowel. You should be able to purchase one box of springs with enough springs in a variety of sizes to fit your entire troop.) 
• Clay or poster putty 
• Tape (masking or duct) 
• 2 pipe cleaners per girl
• Scissors 
• Measuring Tape
• Markers or paint for decorating
• Optional: wood glue for girls to connect multiple spools into one Bot

Tips for Leaders when purchasing Leap Bot materials

We had luck making a trip over the Ace Hardware but also found that Hobby Lobby worked well too. While there we were able to test that the compression springs and spools fit over the dowel rods pretty easily. This helped us make sure we bought the right materials.

For the Leap Bots, you will want to purchase different size compression springs. We bought various length compression springs, but we also purchased different widths and number of coils too. This let our scouts put on their engineering hats and test lots of different springs. The different size compression springs helped our girls learn more about forces, gravity, potential energy and kinetic energy.

You will also want a variety of sizes of spools. Be sure the spools will slide over the dowel rod but not the compression springs. The scouts can explore the different sizes, diameters, and weights of the spools as they use the force from the spring to make the spool jump. If your scouts struggle, you can limit their spools to just one type to have less factors to test. However, if the scouts are looking for a challenge, offering different size spools was rather fun.

If you find that the spools are too wide, you can add a washer above the spring for the spool to sit on. This will keep the spools from sliding on top of the compression springs.

If you are looking for a one stop shop with some cute pre-made bags, be sure to check out makingfriends.com’s Beginner Leap Bot Badge in a Bag. What a cute idea! Plus these are much cheaper than a Goldieblox Making Things Zoom kit.

Creating the Leap Bots

We started by placing the dowels, springs, and spools on the table and letting the scouts experiment with the different materials. The only direction was to try to make the spool jump. The scouts were encouraged to play with the spools and compression strings. We gave very few directions and guidance, instead allowing the scouts time to play with the materials. The girls loved being able to try out different spools and spring combinations. Some even started to stack springs and stack spools too, which was fun to watch.

As the scouts play, you can walk around and point out what the different scouts are trying. Our girls loved to come see what other groups were doing. Moreover, this encouraged others to try out something new. Throughout the experimentation, ask the scouts what they are doing to make the leap bot jump the highest. Then ask them how they know. This will encourage your scouts to start thinking of how they will measure their results.

Come Together to Talk

After a few minutes of play, we brought the scouts together, leaving all the materials at the tables. This helped the girls to focus on the discussion instead of continuing to tinker with the materials. We encouraged the girls to share what they discovered. We tried to add very few corrections on their ideas at this time, instead letting the girls share what they discovered. Your scouts might even disagree, that’s okay. Let them know that you will do more testing and they can check to see which really occurs.

We found it helpful during this discussion to write down notes. We kept a list of the different ideas the scouts shared, even if we knew that it was incorrect. If the scouts disagreed, we recorded that as well. Before presenting the challenge, we asked the scouts what questions they had. Record these as well, but try not to answer them just yet. Instead, let the girls know that when they return to testing, they can try to figure out answers to these questions.

Then we laid out the challenge: Design a leap bot that jumps the highest. Before allowing them to go back to their experiments, we needed to determine a way to measure and record the results. We put the girls to the test and they created a recording sheet and the rules for measurement. They did way better than we could ever have done!

Making the Leap Bots

The brownies needed a bit more time to experiment now that they knew the challenge. Then it was time to decorate their leap bots. Each scout (or group/partner) created a base using the cardboard, dowel rod, putty and tape. Most of our girls just wanted to use the tape instead of the putty. We found the scouts needed a little help making the base and would suggest to preassemble bases if you are short on time. Basically, you want a way to keep the dowel rod standing up tall without needing to hold it.

Then they placed a compression spring or multiple springs onto their dowel rod. We let the girls experiment with the springs a little more using all the shared knowledge. Plus they wanted to try to answer the questions that they brainstormed.

Next, they decorated their spools using tape, pipe cleaners, markers, or anything else the brownies could find. They enjoyed adding some googly eyes too! Our girls got really into the decorating and needed a time limit to get them back to their experimentation. However, you could definitely add additional time to allow for extended decorating. In addition, some groups wanted to decorate multiple leap bots too.

Finally, the leap bots went on top of the springs on the dowel rod. They were ready for testing! Just press down on the leap bot (spool) and let it go. So exciting and so much flying.

Testing the Leap Bots

The scouts performed some preliminary tests on their own playing with the force on the springs. Then we all gathered together and made our leap bots fly. The other brownies took turn measuring and recording the results of the flying leap bots. This helped keep everyone engaged. Try your best to give each scout or pair of scouts a specific job. These could include measuring official, record keeper, observer, launch team, photographer, regulation official, and retriever. If you have more girls, feel free to add roles or even pair up the girls. You can even have assistants for each job.

Our girls wanted an easy way to record the height of each jump. Using a tape measure, they placed a piece of painter’s tape every foot going up the wall nearest to where we tested. Then they wrote a number on the tape for easy measuring. These will fly quite high, so be sure to label up higher than you might think.

We drew a quick chart on a whiteboard. The girls wanted to record type of spring, size of spool and height of the jump. Each group recorded their spring and spool before the test. During the flights, we only need to record the heights of the jump. The tape marks definitely helped with this. You might consider adding a different colored mark at the halfway point between each foot. This would help to break some “ties.”

Finishing the Brownie Leap Bots Meeting

We brought the girls back together to discuss their leap bots and what they learned. During this discussion, we did take time to address any misconceptions that lingered. We also encouraged the other brownies to help explain why something worked or didn’t work. Go back to their list of ideas and questions. See which ones remain true, which the girls can now correct, and which they are now able to answer.

Take the time to ask if they have more questions. If you can, provide an answer. If not, record the question to discuss at the next meeting. You could even ask each girl to take home a question and see if they can find an answer to share at the next meeting. If there are lots of questions, every girl could even have two questions to answer. It’s okay to pair girls up on the same question too. This will give even more information for sharing.

We encouraged our scouts to use the extra springs and spools to demonstrate why something did or did not work. The girls could show the jumps with different springs and different sized spools. We even tried a more methodical experiment by using the same compression spring with different spools. Then we tried the same spool but with different compression springs. This helped the scouts to better explain why their ideas worked using evidence and not just their best guess.

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What a fantastic dive into mechanical engineering and the best part, the troop was excited to tackle another mechanical engineering badge! They had so much fun that we quickly planned out the next two mechanical engineering badges to tackle over the next few months: Brownie fling flyer badge and race car design badge.

Please check out our other Brownie Girl Scout meeting ideas and posts. Leave a comment below and let us know if you’ve tried these little bots before. What worked well for you? What would you have tried differently? Did your girls love these little bots as much as ours?

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.