Wirral Brownies and Guides get inventive for launch of new badge (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral Brownies and Guides get inventive for launch of new badge

11:45am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News

BROWNIES and Guides from across Wirral put their thinking caps on for an inventor's challenge at Spaceport in Seacombe.

The aim was to celebrate the launch of a new guiding badge designed to foster creativity and invention. The girls, aged 5 – 14, were joined by Wallace & Gromit at the launch.

Former Minister for IPO and Vice President of Girlguiding UK Baroness Judith Wilcox, who was unable to attend the event due to illness, sent her congratulations on the launch of the challenge and said: "Guiding has always given girls and young women a space to develop confidence and self-belief, skills which are at the forefront of any career.

"We must find more positive, relevant role models for our young women, not just those consigned the history books.

"As Minister for Intellectual Property for the past two years, I’ve learnt that the ideas in your head are incredibly valuable – often more than you think.

"Even the youngest girls can create great ideas - invention doesn't need to be extraordinary!"

Earlier this year Girlguiding UK highlighted a role model deficit amongst girls and young women, based on findings from its 2011 Girls' Attitudes Survey.

The organisation's Real Role Models campaign is designed to redress the balance, to promote positive role models for girls and young women in the UK, and the Inventor’s Challenge does just that! .

Jessica, from 6th Tranmere Brownies, said: "I quite like learning about science and have enjoyed finding out more about the solar system at Spaceport.

"We all tried the space quiz and found out that the universe has 200 billion stars!"

Sue Lomas, chief commissioner for Girlguiding North West England said: "Guiding is all about giving girls and young women a wide range of experiences within a girl-only space so we wanted to challenge them to think about science and technology in a new way.

"From Girlguiding UK’s research into girls’ attitudes to careers we know that they don’t feel that a job in engineering or science is that appealing.

"Showing girls the different ways that they can engage with these fields is incredibly important."