Meet the Green Machine

The Green Machine Team is a team of Girl Scouts who are competing for the First® Lego® League Global Innovation Award (http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/) which grants funding to bring inventions to market. The prize is awarded based on review of the innovation and popular vote. If we can get our team into the top 10, which is won by popular vote, we will be guaranteed consideration from the FLL judges. We are proud to represent Girl Scouts in this competition. We would like all Girl Scouts and their families to vote. Everyone can vote once every 24 hours.  Here's the direct voting link: http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/%E2%80%9Cwachastabb%E2%80%9D-wax-covered-hybrid-seed-tomato-turns-blue-when-infected-salmonella

Team Description: 

Our team comes from 6 different Girl Scout troops, 5 different schools and grades! Our ages are 9-14years old.  The team is called "Green Machine" and we are Girl Scouts from the West Windsor–Plainsboro Service unit.  Even though we still sell cookies our motto is "We are not just about cookies anymore!"  We compete in the FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego® League Robotics games and this year we won the first place Champions Prize at our regional qualifier. This means that our team received high marks in each of 4 judging categories: Core values, Robot design, Research, and Robot games!  Our robot is an autonomous (no remote control) machine, built to score points by performing mission tasks. We call her Miss Cookie Crusher. We are proud to be Girl Scouts and will represent Girl Scouts once again at the FLL Championship Games  at the University of Pennsylvania on January 28.  

Team Research: 

Every year the FLL games has a special theme and teams must do research to come up with a novel way to solve problems that are related to the theme. We use our creativity to design or modify an existing solution to a real world problem.  This year the theme was ‘FOOD FACTOR’ and the challenge was to invent a novel way to keep food safe. Teams from all over the world came up with many ideas such as ultraviolet light lunch boxes and automatic sanitizing counter tops. Our idea is called ‘Wachasttab’ or wax covered hybrid seed tomato that turns blue when infected with Salmonella.

Brief Submission Description: 

We started our research on our project by visiting and interviewing growers at the local farmers markets to learn about problems they faced with food safety. Everyone knew about the contamination of raw foods with Salmonella, but they agreed that it is very difficult to detect until someone gets sick. Besides potatoes, people eat tomatoes more than any other fruit or vegetable.  In this country almost all tomatoes come from large farms that are supplied with seeds from 3 companies; Monsanto, Heinz and Dupont. We researched outbreaks of Salmonella and read papers about new discoveries for detecting Salmonella  in tomatoes. We talked with experts at two universities and came up with our own solution. We examined data from some preliminary experiments and realized that it is possible to genetically modify vegetables so that they change color in the presence of Salmonella.

Wachasttab is a patent pending form of genetically modified plant to prevent the spread of disease from Salmonella. The process can be applied to any plant, but our project specifically targets tomatoes. Salmonella can colonize tomatoes at any stage of the food chain, from seed to marketplace. Wachasttab is a method to protect seeds with probiotics  and genetically modify tomatoes so that they can be identified if contaminated with Salmonella. The contaminated tomatoes are not meant to be eaten-they are meant to be destroyed. Because the modified genes are not actually activated unless the plant is exposed to Salmonella, consumers who object to eating genetically modified produce should not be concerned. We hope that one of the large tomato seed companies (Monsanto, Heinz, or Dupont) will use our idea to help improve the safety of raw tomatoes. 

The B.I.G. Celebration (Believe in Girls)

The B.I.G. Celebration
(Believe in Girls)
Saturday, June 23, 2012

Start: 1:00 pm
End: Conclusion of evening fireworks
(approximately 10:30pm)

Cost: $89.50 per ticket (girl or adult) which includes the cost of entry, the evening concert, 100 activities, an event t-shirt, a commemorative B.I.G Celebration patch, off-site parking and shuttle service to the event site from the parking lot.

Join thousands of Girl Scouts from around the nation!

Register now for The “Believe In Girls” (B.I.G.) Celebration, a day-long event culminating in an evening concert and fireworks spectacular featuring Grammy nominated artist and celebrity judge on NBC’s “The Sing Off,” Sara Bareilles, and another soon to be announced A-list artist.

The event will also include daytime performances by a variety of talented artists to be announced later this month.

The day-long event will include 100 activities taking place at the scenic Liberty State Park, which features 1,122 acres of open space and panoramic views of The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the New York Harbor. The activities will include:

– Join the National Wildlife Federation in planting native flower beds to attract the endangered North American Songbirds to Liberty State Park

– Perform in the highly-anticipated B.I.G. Celebration Flash Mob Dance

– Learning to rock climb in our B.I.G. RockwallZone

– Take fun pictures with your friends in a B.I.G. photo booth

– Creating SWAPS and other crafts at the A.C. Moore CraftZone

– Check out the B.I.G. Cooking Pavilion, where you will learn about “Living Healthy and Leading Healthy,” see a variety of exciting cooking demos, roll up your sleeves at one of the hands-on workshops and much more.

– Tackle the B.I.G. Obstacle Course

– Experience Living Liberty, the amazing “living Statue of Liberty”

– Visit the Port Authority of NY & NJ’s booth and meet George Washington Bridge Senior Resident Engineer, Andrea Giorgi Bocker, and learn about how a bridge is built and what an engineer does(and she is a Girl Scout!)

– Bounce in one of more than a dozen bounce houses at the B.I.G. BounceZone

– Shop at a Girl Scout Councils of New Jersey 100th Anniversary Shop (where you can pick up your FREE 100th B.I.G. Celebration patch!)

– Play a game of hoops with the WNBA and meet legends of women’s basketball

– Experience the Girl Scouts: Past, Present, Future Exhibit, where they’ll see vintage uniforms and artifacts

– Take a hip-hop dancing class

– Learn about WAGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)

– Experience Zumbatonic®, the popular aerobic-dance workout designed for kids

– Wear a FREE B.I.G. temporary tattoo

– Learn about the wonders of the Hudson River at the Hudson River Museum booth

– Join in the ALL-DAY dance party with our very own DJ

– Add some Hair Flair to your look at the B.I.G. Hair Studio (additional fees apply)

– View the magic of the stars with an evening astronomy experience

– Snap your pic with the Journey Book characters

– Learn a cheer from one of New Jersey’s premier squads

– Take a short cruises on New York Harbor from the nearby marina (additional fees apply)

– Enter the onsite B.I.G. Photo Contest for a chance to win a fun prize and have your photos displayed for all to see on the jumbotron during the event!

– Take a soccer clinic on the picturesque fields of Liberty State Park

– Take a photo in front of Juliette Low’s Savannah, Georgia home! How? The wonders of technology!

– And this is just the beginning…

Special Promotions:
Participants who purchase tickets before February 29, 2012, will receive an early access pass granting them entry to the event one hour early.

The first 15,000 people to purchase tickets will receive a free cinch sack bag.

About Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and pianist. She has sold over one million records in the United States and served as a celebrity judge for the third season of NBC's “The Sing-Off.” She has topped the Billboard music charts with hit singles including “Love Song” and “King of Anything.” For more on Sara and her music, please visit www.sarabmusic.com.

Princeton Girl Scouts Help Try to Break World Record

Local Girl Scouts did one minute of jumping jacks in Princeton on Tuesday, part of an effort to get 20,000 nationwide to do the same.

By Greta Cuyler - Princeton Packet
http://princeton.patch.com/articles/princeton-girl-scouts-help-try-to-break-world-record
October 12, 2011

It’s about getting fit and having fun.

And 35 Princeton Girl Scouts did just that on Tuesday afternoon in the courtyard of the Princeton Shopping Center, joining a nationwide effort to break the Guinness World Record title for the most people performing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period.

The Girl Scouts did one minute of uninterrupted jumping jacks.


The goal is to have 20,000 people participate between Tuesday at 3 p.m. and Wednesday at 3 p.m., east coast time.

“I thought it would be fun for the girls to be involved with trying to break at Guinness World Record and to show the community some of the fun things Girl Scouts get to do,” Karen Freundlich, the volunteer service unit manager for the Princeton Girl Scouts, an umbrella organization for 25 different scout troops in town.

A timekeeper armed with a stopwatch timed the girls’ participation and the results will be gathered nationally to determine if the record was broken, although it will probably take a few weeks for the national results to be announced.

The “Let’s Jump!” effort is spearheaded by National Geographic Kids magazine.

To break the record, more than 20,000 people must complete one minute of jumping jacks in events occurring between 3 p.m. on Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, east coast time.

First Lady Michelle Obama kicked things off in Washington D.C. on Tuesday with one minute of jumping jacks, supporting her "Let’s Move!" campaign, which encourages kids and families to get healthy and active.

16,000+ Households STOP Vampire Currents

On March 12, 2011 over 16,000 households pledged to PULL THE PLUG on vampire currents for 100 minutes thanks to 2,776 Girl Scouts who secured a minimum of 5 pledges each. Girls secured pledges from within the state of New Jersey as well as accross the United States. Reports from troops indicate pledges were secured from California, Texas, Florida, and Iowa. Thanks to technology, one troop even secured pledges from accross the Atlantic Ocean in England! Troop 30916 from Timbercreek shared, "The girls are all 5 year olds and this was the 1st time they ever did anything like this and they LOVED every minute of it!" Troop 72027 from LETS shared, "I thought this was a great project to raise awareness of how much energy each person/household can save." Many troops incorporated the program into the Journey they were working on like Troop 54120 from Wihe'Tonga who were learning about energy through Get Moving.

Just a reminder to troops who participated, your Troop Evaluation/Summary needs to be submitted in order for your troop to receive their patches. Contact Kimberly Reed with any questions, kreed@gscsnj.org.

It’s EASY to be Green!

Whenever I hear the word ‘green’ I think of Kermit the Frog. I know, it is weird but I cannot get that image of him sitting on a log in the swamp singing, “It’s not that easy being green”. I think when the song was written or for him on a personal level, it really was not easy being green. But in the times we live in now, it really is EASY.

Recycling, for the most part, has moved into most neighborhoods/communities. Households are accustomed to recycling their plastic, aluminum, and paper. What was once a ‘chore” has become the norm. Now everyone is into reusing and this is so evident by all of the choices for a reusable tote. You can pick one up practically anywhere and fill it with your groceries or other shop items. I know my husband and I both have a supply, maybe 5 or 7, in our cars just in case we stop off at a store. We are always ready to bring in our empty bags and leave with full bags. This would be in addition to lunch bags, gym bags, laptop cases, and handbags we carry. Even with all of the bags my family and I currently carry around we could still work on our ‘green efforts’.

Last July, I became involved in the Girl Scout Community Action Project – Forever Green. A project that is helping to carry Girl Scouts to our 100th Anniversary focusing on what we as Girl Scouts have always done, help the environment. Forever Green helps us concentrate our efforts into 5 main areas: air, water, energy, green space, and waste management. What really surprised me was the diversity of projects that one could do to participate and the commitment levels associated with each. For example girls could decide to have people sign a water pledge to reduce the amount of time they spend showering or clean-up a local stream. Other sample projects include starting a school/community garden, encouraging the use of reusable water/food containers, educating others about ‘vampire currents’, and starting a no-idling zone at school.

I encourage you to get involved in this project with your troop, school, and community. Now is a great time to educate the public especially when you see so many people at your cookie booths. Now is also a great time to start planning for the spring and for Earth Day, April 22nd. Check out our website, http://www.gscsnj.org/forever_green.php for additional information including the Project Guide which has plenty of information and ideas to get you started. Remember to register your project at www.girlscouts.org/forevergreen.

As you begin working on your Forever Green project, please think of our friend, Kermit, sitting on his log and singing words that still resonate with us all:

“When green is all there is to be, it could make you wonder why, but why wonder why wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be”.

Yours in Girl Scouting,

Kimberly Reed
Leadership Development Director
kreed@gscsnj.org