The Numbers in Nature badge is part of a series of math-themed nature badges – Numbers, Design, and Shapes in Nature. These badges exist for Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors so they are great for multi-level troops.
Below is a list of activities to meet the requirements for the Numbers in Nature badge. Find ideas for more Brownie badges here.
Measure Something in Nature
For this activity, the girls first determined what they wanted to measure in nature – a blade of grass, a flower stem, etc. Then they had to come up with alternative ways to measure that item besides using a ruler.
One of my favorites was measuring the distance between two trees by counting how many girls doing splits could stretch between the trees.
Graphing Nature
Girls were challenged to find the longest blade of grass. Then we measured them with a ruler and plotted the results on a graph. Each girl got to choose how to mark her spot on the graph. Some chose bar graphs while others drew a picture for their spot on the graph.
Plot a Garden
In our troop, we have a parent who is a landscape architect. She was gracious enough to share her skills with our troop and teach how to plan a garden. Girls had graph paper, pencils, and rulers. They chose what flowers, bushes, or trees they wanted included in the garden. Then had to mark off the required space for each plant based on size.
Plant a Garden
Girls were given an empty, plastic strawberry container. They weighed and measured dirt to fill the container and planted a tomato seed. They also could decorate their container with stickers. Our troop loves to decorate so this step was a big hit.
