How+It+Came+To+Be

__The Innocent Question__

In fall 2000, The Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL) at University of North Texas (UNT) had hired their first undergraduate student worker. Michael Gallia was a junior transfer student and had immediately immersed himself into extra-curricular life at UNT. Another employee of IITTL, who had been hired in fall 1999, was graduate student Theresa Overall who was in her last semester of her master's in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems.

One Monday morning, Michael asked Theresa, "You're in Girl Scouts, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know if Girl Scouts have any badges in chemistry?"

"I don't know off the top of my head, but I can look it up when I go home tonight. Why do you ask?"

"I was working over the weekend on a service project with the chemistry fraternity, Alpha Chi Sigma (AXE). We were helping Boy Scouts earn a chemistry merit badge. As I worked with the Boy Scouts I wondered if we ever did work with Girl Scouts and it turns out we've never done it. So I thought I'd find out if Girl Scouts even had a chemistry badge."

Theresa was immediately impressed and agreed to follow up and get back to him.

The next day Theresa asked Michael, "So how committed are you to this idea of Girl Scouts and chemistry?"

"Pretty committed, I guess. Why?"

"Well, it turns out that there aren't any chemistry badges. I looked through the Brownie Try-It book, the Junior Badge book, and the Interest Project book for Cadettes and Seniors. We have badges in marine biology and computer technology, environmental science and mathematics, but nothing in chemistry. I found references to chemistry in cooking badges but nothing focused on the hard science."

"So why do you ask how committed I am?"

"Because there is a 'Your Own Council's Badge' and a 'Your Own Council's Interest Project' and I think we should design our own chemistry badge. Are you up for it?"

"Definitely!"

And that was the beginning. Theresea and Michael put together a proposal and presented it to Girl Scouts of Tejas Council's Girl Power committee who immediately endorsed the concept if we would put together a committee of people knowledgable in chemistry, pedagogy, and Girl Scouts who would design the Interest Project. Approval was also given for the event to be only for Senior (9th - 12th grade) Girl Scouts. Because UNT is located within the boundaries of Cross Timbers Council, they would be invited to participate. Two members of the Girl Power committee volunteered on the spot to be on the committee: Mary Hunter, a Senior Girl Scout, and Katie Hammond, a longtime volunteer and staff member who was a biology major at UNT. She volunteered her husband Bill, another longtime volunteer, who was a chemistry major at UNT and a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity.

Sherri Shoemaker from Girl Scouts of Cross Timbers Council joined the committee along with AXE fraternity members. The committee met through the spring, summer, and fall. They submitted a grant proposal to Lockheed Martin which was not funded but the process helped the group focus and document their work. In fall 2000, the first Campus Chemistry was held and the rest, as they say, is history.