Teen Girl Scouts on the Western Slope recently had a chance to earn their Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey during a field research event featuring Colorado’s cutest mammal, the Pika. Led by Pika biologist Johanna Varner, robotics engineer Sarah Wilson, and environmental educator Sarah Johnson, girls collected data and gained field experience while documenting pika presence and land cover characteristics in Western Colorado. The two-day experience began with a Friday evening classroom training at Colorado Mesa University, followed by a Saturday field excursion to Grand Mesa National Forest, where the Girl Scouts helped collect data for the Colorado Pika Project and the GLOBE Observer program. These young women received first-hand experience of what it’s really like to be a scientist, while engaging with three female trailblazers in STEM.
If you’ve got Pika FOMO, don’t worry! Varner, Wilson, and Johnson are also developing an online training module so that Girl Scouts across the state can participate in these activities. The online module will be available via Girl Scouts of Colorado’s “GSCO On the Go” virtual asynchronous programming. Watch for an announcement when these materials become available in time for exploring outdoors and observing pikas during the 2022 summer months.
This IF/THEN® She Can Change The World Project was made possible with the support of Lyda Hill Philanthropies as part of the AAAS IF/THEN® Ambassadors Program.
