Cadette Animal Helpers Girl Scout Badge

Are you looking for ways to earn the Animal Helpers Cadette badge? If so, we’ve got the guide for you. As you move on to the Cadette Girl Scout year, your girls become more and more busy with other commitments and it becomes more difficult to find a time to meet as a troop. For this reason, we plan our Cadette Girl Scout meetings for both a troop meeting option and an individual girl option so that your girls who are otherwise committed can still earn the badge.

The Cadette Girl Scout Animal Helpers badge is the perfect badge for middle school girls. This badge fits best if your girls are interested in helping animals by volunteering, becoming a veterinarian, or wildlife biologist. This badge is a great way to explore different career paths when working with animals with your troop.

What are the Cadette Animal Helpers Badge Requirements?

To earn the Cadette Animal Helpers badge, your troop will need to explore the many ways that animals have helped humans throughout history in a variety of ways. This badge is part of the It’s Your Story – Tell It! Cadette MEdia Set.

1. Explore the connection between humans and animals
2. Find out how animals help keep people safe
3. Know how animals help people emotionally
4. Check out how animals help people with disabilities
5. Look at how animals might help us in the future

Explore the Connection Between Humans and Animals

To begin the Animal Helpers Cadette badge, your troop will need to explore the connection between humans and animals. The girl scout guide offers three different activities to facilitate this part of the badge.

1. Find out how views of animals have changed over the centuries.
2. Watch a documentary series on the human-animal connection.
3. Show how animals helped at key points in history.

Our girls choose to make a timeline to show how animals helped in key points in history. The girls researched different ways that animals helped humans from early civilization to the present. Some of the important events that our troop discovered were oxen helping to plow fields, animals providing milk, meat, and fur, horses for travel, police dogs for keeping people safe, animal testing for new products and vaccines.

A few specific animals that our girls found include: Dolly the sheep who proved cloning was possible, Balto the dog brining life-saving serum to others in Alaska, Ham the chimp astronaut, and Cher Ami the pigeon who saved American troops.

Find Out How Animals Keep People Safe

The next requirement for the Cadette Animal Helpers badge looks at finding out how animals help keep people safe. Fire departments, police departments, and disaster specialists work with specifically trained animals to assist with rescues, detection of dangers, and transport of supplies to help keep people safe.

1. Check out a safety team that uses animals.
2. Talk to a trainer.
3. Read stories about animal heroes.

This is a great time to work with your local K-9 police unit or disaster specialists. If you happen to have one who lives nearby, invite them to a meeting to introduce the girls to their animal partner. If not, you could read stories about animal heroes around the world or newspaper articles about animal heroes in your community. You might just be surprised at the animal heroes living close by.

Know How Animals Help People Emotionally

Animals don’t only help us physically, but having animals around can also help us emotionally by reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and helping a person feel happier. Girl Scouts provides three different options to earn this requirement of the Animal Helpers Cadette badge.

1. Talk to a vet or psychologist.
2. Visit an organization that uses animals to help people emotionally.
3. Interview at least five pet owners.

We love to host this part of the badge with a local vet or animal therapist depending on what our girls are most interested in. The girls ask lots of good questions and already knew so much about animals helping people emotionally. If you don’t have a vet or animal therapist nearby who is available, you could also interview 5 pet owners. You might be surprised to find that you have 5 pet owners within your troop. You could also challenge each scout to interview a pet owner and then share what they found out at the next meeting.

Check Out How Animals Help People with Disabilities

The fourth requirement for the Cadette Animals Helpers badge is to explore how animals help people with disabilities. There are so many different kinds of animals that help people in a variety of ways.

1. Talk to someone who trains assistance animals.
2. Speak to someone who has an assistance animal.
3. Research the pros and cons of training assistance animals.

If you are working with a local veterinarian or animal therapist, this is the perfect time to talk about assistance animals. Our girls wanted to learn more about what animals can be a service animal, how service animals are trained and the process for qualifying for a service animal.

Look at How Animals Might Help Us in the Future

The final requirement for the Animal Helpers Cadette badge explores different animals who have special or unique abilities that could benefit humans in the future.

1. Get a sense of different animals’ unique skills and abilities.
2. Talk to an animal expert at a zoo or university.
3. Practice being a scientist.

Our troop chose to learn more about some animal’s special abilities. You will need to choose 5 animals to research their senses and abilities, then compare those animals to humans.

What Questions Can We Ask While Earning the Animal Helpers Cadette Badge?

As your troops works through the Cadette Animal Helpers badge, your scouts will come with lots of knowledge about animals. So many young scouts love animals and learn as much as possible about some of their favorites. However, we always want to push our scouts to think a little deeper and explore different ideas, so we have compiled a list of questions that you can use to explore these ideas a little further.

• How has the relationship between humans and animals changed over history? (Explore how animals were useful but not part of the family to how animals are now part of many families).
• Why has the human-animal relationship changed?
• In which roles are animals trained to assist people?
• How are animals trained to become assistance animals (therapy, k-9, rescue, etc)?
• What benefits do animals provide to people emotionally?
• Do the benefits the animals provide to people outweigh the conditions of training/living so the animal is always ready to help?
• Which different animals could we utilize as assistance animals in the future with the right training? How would these animals be helpful to people?

Cadette Animal Helpers Troop Meeting Plan

When earning the Animal Helpers Cadette Girl Scout badge, you will want to consider if you have a local expert to work with your troop. Look around for a veterinarian, animal rehabilitation clinic, or wildlife specialist. Often times these professionals are excited to share their expertise with young girls and volunteer their time. This can also be a great time to schedule with other Cadette troops in your service unit so as many Girl Scouts as possible can take part in this opportunity.

Gathering Activity

Before the meeting, ask each of your scouts to make a list of different ways that animals have helped humans throughout history. As your girls arrive, set up two areas for the girls to work. In the first area, include a long paper for the scouts to add their research to create a time line of events. For ease with placement, try sticky tac and notecards to place the different ways animals have helped humans on the time line. This way you can easily move the cards as more girls add their ideas.

The second area is a large poster for the girls to brainstorm their questions for the specialist who is working with your troop. Ask the girls to write down the questions that they have for your animal specialist.

Approximate Time: 15 minutes

Expert Interview

Provide your scouts time to work with your expert for the Animal Helpers Cadette badge. Your expert may have a presentation to share or may want to do more of an informal question and answer. Either option is perfectly reasonable. Be sure to provide time for questions.

During the presentation, you will want to explore how animals help people emotionally and how they can help people with disabilities. If your expert also knows different ways that animals can help keep people safe, include this in the interview as well.

Approximate Time: 30 minutes

Exploring Animal Heroes

After the expert interview, work with your Cadette Girl Scouts to learn more about animal heroes. You can do this by using local newspaper stories about special animals, books, or researching online. Share a few animal hero stories with your troop. You can even let the girls read the stories or articles.

Then think about other animals that could become assistance animals in the future and ways that these animals could assist humans. Brainstorm 5 animals. Allow your scouts some time to research the senses and special abilities of the animals and compare these to humans.

Approximate Time: 30 minutes

Cadette Animal Helpers Individual Plan

You may have a Cadette Girl Scout who needs to miss this meeting. It happens from time to time, so we also provide an independent plan for any of your scouts who cannot attend but still want to earn the badge. The Animal Helpers Cadette badge Individual Plan is a 5 step plan that your Cadette Scout can complete independently. We just ask that they turn in the checklist to show us that they completed each step.

To limit paperwork, you can also ask your scouts to send your a picture of their work in email or text. This is a great way for the girl to be part of the group while missing the meeting.

Girl Scout Cadette Badges That Pair Well with the Cadette Animal Helpers Badge

Our troop loves to pair badges together so that our girls can accomplish more in the limited scouting time. While you become Animal Helpers, there are a few badges that pair well and flow nicely after this badge. Some of these badges are easier to pair than others, but it can also be helpful to chain the badges so you have your next few meetings planned, especially when requirements overlap.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist Cadette Badge or Journey

The Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist badge or journey is the perfect compliment for learning more about animals. Extend your animal helper experience by making observations about animals in your environment and helping scientists make observations, collect data, and conduct scientific research.

To extend this even further, complete the Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey. You will need to add a take action project to this badge. You could work with your expert to help brainstorm a take action project.

Cadette Public Speaker Badge

If you plan to include an interview during the Animal Helpers Cadette badge, this is the perfect badge to work on before your interview. Work with your Cadette Girl Scouts to learn more about public speaking and using their skills during the expert interview.

Trying the Public Speaker Cadette badge before an interview can give your Cadette Girl Scouts the confidence to soar while interviewing an expert.

Cadette Finding Common Ground Badge

If your scouts want to work the Cadette Entrepreneur or Business Creator Cadette badges, this is the perfect badge to highlight before beginning. During the Finding Common Ground Cadette badge, your scouts will learn more about how people work together to compromise which will assist them as they begin to develop business ideas.

Entrepreneur Cadette Badge

If your Cadette Girl Scouts loved brainstorming ways animals could help people in the future, this is the perfect next step for your troop. Work together to brainstorm ways to turn one of the Cadette Scout’s ideas into a business venture. Your troop can work together to firm up a business plan and improve the idea. Then use the public speaker badge to practice sharing their business ideas in an elevator pitch.

Cadette Business Creator Badge

This pairs well with the Entrepreneur Cadette Badge. Your scouts will need an idea that solves a problem. The Cadette Animal Helpers badge can help your scouts brainstorm a problem and idea to solve the problem. Then they will work to design a prototype and create their business plan.

This is another great badge to focus on next. In this badge, your Junior Girl Scouts will design a crane to lift a load.

Cadette Business Plan Badge

If your scouts really take to their business ideas and want to pursue their ideas further, the Business Plan Cadette badge, is your next step. This badge will help your scouts to create their business basics like a mission statement and goals. They will dive into their perfect customer and even gather feedback on their plan.

STEM Career Exploration

If you plan to include an expert interview, this is another great extension badge. Completing this badge can be part of requirement one to explore your interests. Next, your girls will need to explore other STEM careers such as Computer Science, Food and Agriculture, Health and Wellness, Nature and the Environment, Creative Technology and Design, and Engineering. The Animal Helpers can help with Food and Agriculture (if discussing animal diets), Health and Wellness, and Nature and Environment.

Your scouts should then learn more about the day to day job for at least one of these careers through an interview or questionnaire. Afterwards, your scouts will brainstorm next steps and share their goals, which can be short term or long term depending on your girls’ interests.

Cadette Comic Artist Badge

Once your Cadette Girl Scouts have a business idea, they will want to share their idea with others. The comic Artist Cadette badge is one way for the girls to share their ideas in comic book form.

Cadette Screenwriter Badge

If your scouts are looking to earn the Digital Movie Maker Cadette badge, start with the Cadette Screenwriter badge to learn about writing a script. Your scouts can first write their movie script to describe or showcase their business ideas, then they can turn their screenplay into a digital movie to share with others.

Digital Movie Maker Cadette Badge

Another way for your Cadette Girl Scouts to share their business idea is through the Cadette Digital Movie Maker badge. In this badge, your scouts will learn more about making digital movies and work together to create their own digital movie. What better way then to put their skills together to share their new business ideas.

Connect with Us for More Great Girl Scout Tips

As a Cadette troop leader, you have become a little bit of a Girl Scout expert! You have so much knowledge to share with others and we hope our Girl Scout Badge guides help you as much as you help others. Does your troop love working with animals and learning more about them? If so, this is the perfect badge for your scouts. If you want to extend their learning and connect other badges, be sure to check out the other badges that pair well.

Looking for some support with Cadette Girl Scout Journeys? We have simple guides for earning Cadette Girl Scout journeys in a day or over multiple meetings.

Leave a comment below and let us know how much your troop love the Cadette Animal Helpers badge. What worked well for you? What would you have tried differently? How did you extend your Cadette Girl Scout troops learning? Don’t miss our FREE Girl Scout Leader’s Campsite Guide to assist when planning your camping trip. And if you are looking for more Girl Scout leader tips, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below.