Girl Scouts GLEE Program

To promote the reduction of home energy consumption and energy use related to food and transportation, Girl Scouts created the Girls Learning Energy and Environment Program (GLEE) for scouts ages 9-10 and their families. Before launching on a large scale, the program was piloted with two scout troops at a summer camp, allowing program developers to identify girls’ current understanding and awareness of energy use at home as well as the behaviors they could take to reduce their energy consumption. This data was used to refine program elements and inform its final design. The GLEE program was delivered through five, one-hour-long sessions that were incorporated into each Girl Scout troop’s normal meeting schedule. In these sessions troop members participated in activities that promoted knowledge and built skillsets connected to individual and family behaviors related to reducing energy use. Troop members then modeled the desired behaviors from the activities by adopting the roles of news anchors, investigative reporters, and energy experts tasked with creating videotaped newscasts focused on the behaviors they had just learned. Creating the newscasts gave the girls the opportunity to rehearse learned behaviors and obtain feedback, increasing their self-efficacy and promoting group norms. After each video was created, troops would watch their video and each girl would earn a patch for participating in the curriculum. Sessions concluded with the girls making a pledge of behaviors to be performed before the next lesson. Girl Scouts would leave each session and return home with tools to help implement the behaviors they had learned, including reminder stickers, power strips, tire pressure gauges, and reusable water bottles. These tools, in conjunction with a parent-focused newsletter, helped to facilitate discussions around (and participation in) desired behaviors at home. A password-protected website served as a landing page for each troop, housing program-related information and the final newscast video clips. Program managers evaluated program impacts using a cluster-randomized controlled trial with 30 4th and 5th grade Girl Scout troops and their parents in Northern California. Baseline, post-test, and follow-up self-administered surveys with Girl Scouts and parents were used to assess each intervention’s efficacy. Compared to controls, Girl Scouts in troops that participated in the GLEE program significantly increased their residential energy-saving behaviours by 49% by the end of the intervention.

For much more information, click here.