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. 

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.

EAST BRUNSWICK GIRL SCOUT HELPS SCHOOL DURING ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES

SENIOR GIRL SCOUT MENTORS ELEMENTRY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN RESPONSE TO TEACHER ‘S AID SHORTAGE AND ENSURES CHILDREN RECEIVE THE HELP THEY NEED

East Brunswick, NJ, April 1, 2011 – Amanda S., 16, of East Brunswick is tutoring several Bowne-Munro Elementary School children for over 80 hours, teaching them basic language and math skills to complete her Gold Award, the highest award a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.
Amanda wanted to address the shortage of teachers and teacher’s aids in her community and ensure that elementary school children get the extra help and mentorship they may not currently be receiving due to budget cuts. Amanda was inspired to take on this project because when she was younger she was tutored and mentored by a caring teacher who dedicated her time to Sanders after school.

Amanda contacted Bowne-Munro’s principal and shared with her that she was interested in completing her Girl Scout Gold Award by mentoring students. She soon got to work with children in the after school program. Sanders assisted children with their homework and made sure that they continued to work on their basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Amanda came up with creative incentives to push the children she was working with further. She made encouraging bookmarks, played games and built their self esteem through positive words.
Through her commitment to youth and education Amanda proves that you can make an impact one child at a time. “I don’t think people are aware that you don’t have to be a teacher to help out in the schools,” said Amanda. “It is important for the community to know that right now there is a shortage of people to assist children who need extra help and they should know that by volunteering they can make sure that all children can receive the help they need. I have seen a change in the children I have been able to help over such a short amount of time. I believe that time is never wasted helping a child.”

By picking an issue that she feels passionately about Sanders has illustrated the values of Girl Scouting. She has shown that she has the courage to make a change, the confidence to try something new and character to see her Girl Scout Gold Award through despite her challenging academic schedule and church youth group activities.

Call To Action

As we are all well aware, the natural disaster that befell Haiti this week is one of unimaginable and epic proportions. And as we are inundated with news accounts by the minute thanks to You Tube, Twitter and Facebook we ask ourselves, “What can I do”, “How can we help” – and we ask these questions because we are Girl Scouts and we have a commitment and desire to TAKE ACTION.

There are many ways that troops can become involved in this relief effort. Here one link from GSUSA that can get you started with ideas of what other troops are doing and a list of resources: http://blog.girlscouts.org/2010/01/haiti-communities-come-together-to-help.html

We are ALWAYS proud to be Girl Scouts and it is times like this when we can use our resources to really make a difference in our world!