I am always looking for cool things to do with my Girl Scout troop, and I heard about field trips to the Apple Store through an online Girl Scout forum. I had also heard a rumor that the Apple Store would be discontinuing field trips, so I wanted to get our troop in for a class before there was any possibility of missing out. (I did ask at the store and was told that there was no plan to stop offering field trips).
I filled out a form on the Apple website, and was contacted not long after by an employee at the Apple Store. I was given a variety of options for our troop activity, and chose the Hour of Code with Sphero. Our meeting usually runs 6:30-7:30 on a weekday night, and they were able to accommodate our meeting time.
The night of the event, we arrived at the Apple Store and set up for the meeting. For this activity, girls could bring their own iPads, or use ones provided by the store. In order to use their own iPads, they had to download the Sphero Edu app. Only a few brought their own iPads, and none of the kids had any issues with their iPads or the ones loaned by the store.
Our instructor started the lesson on what we would be doing, and the basics of how to code Sphero robots.
Each girl was given an iPad as needed and a Sphero robot to use.
The girls started by pairing their iPads, and choosing different colors for their Sphero robots (so they could tell them apart).
The instructor brought up his iPad screen for everyone to see and learn how to code their Sphero.
Most of my scouts are in 3rd grade, and some of the coding was a little difficult for them – but that was totally ok. Looking at them, you could tell they were thinking quite a bit. I loved looking at their faces and seeing them so engaged in their coding. Even though some of the concepts were a little over their heads, there was plenty for them to do with their Sphero robots.
The hardest part of the coding for them was grasping the concept of what degree turn their Sphero should make. And while some of them experimented with various degrees, others experimented with other facets of coding, like creating a loop or trying to figure out what speed to set their Sphero to.
Their challenge was to code their Sphero robot to maneuver through the maze. For this, you have to make a series of commands to tell it what direction (in degrees) to travel, how fast, and for how long. For example, 90 degrees, at a speed of 40, for 3 seconds. The next command would tell the Sphero robot to turn and travel the next length, and so on.
Since the girls struggled a little bit with figuring out degrees to turn their Sphero, they were just as happy to see what else the Sphero robots could do, from sounds to jumping. I loved that their hour of coding was versatile enough to get them thinking and checking out different possibilities.
We had a great time on our field trip to the Apple Store. It was fun for the girls to have a new experience and be able to try new things. I would definitely recommend this to other troops or groups.
A big thanks to the Apple Store in Crossgates Mall for hosting us!
Check out the Apple field trips page at https://www.apple.com/retail/fieldtrip/
The Apple Store also offers public programs on a regular basis, and the Hour of Code is actually available as a public event. Check out that info here:
https://www.apple.com/today/collection/hourofcode/
Check out our other Girl Scout activities:
Girl Scout Grocery Store Tour
Girl Scout Kindness Rocks
Girl Scout Marimo Terrariums
That sounds like a lot of fun. My daughter is in girl scouts, I wonder if her leader plans on a trip like this.
What a fun experience for the girls! My daughter’s troop hasn’t gone there yet. Maybe I’ll have to let the troop leader know about it.
This trip looks cool! There are so many fun things to experience. I am sure it is fun!
Those coding robots are so neat. I am a bit disappointed my third grader wasn’t able to get into coding. He switched schools and they don’t do it at his current school. Coding is the future!
I so wish I could be a Girl Scout again – I love these activities! Much more interesting than building a campfire!
That would have been fun to do! I loved being a girls scout when I was younger.
That sounds like a fun group trip. I didn’t know they did group activities at the Apple store, this sounds like a fun way to enjoy time with friends and encourage learning about technology.
That is really awesome. I had no idea that the Girl Scouts did activities like this, I don’t think they do around here as we don’t have an apple store nearby but super neat idea to teach them about this!
I love it! I think its so cool to teach kids coding. It is really what this world is about now. Great field trip!
That looks like it was a really fun trip! My daughter is not in Girl Scouts, but she would have loved to have tried out that!
I used to love going on field trips like this! Looks as though it was a ton of educational fun!
This looks awesome! How I wish there is a trip like this in here. I bet it was all fun!
This is a great activities for the girls. Is something different.
What an awesome and interactive trip idea! The girls must have really enjoyed themselves there!
This sounds like a fun and educational field trip. I bet they had a lot of fun!
Such a fun trip. I enjoy visiting our local Apple store and I am sure it is terrific to go with a group like this.
Dear Marisa
I am a Girl Scout leader as well and we are always looking for something new and fun to do! I am going to contact an apple store (2 hours away only downfall) and see what they can do for us. We live in a small town so there is not much to do around here. If you have anymore ideas that maybe we might could explore that would be amazing!
That sounds like an amazing adventure for those girls. We don’t have enough girls in the tech and science area so this seems like it would be a great way to introduce them to it.