How to Earn the Girl Scout Junior Product Designer Badge (Amuse)

Updated April 2023

Our lives revolve around products. A successful one is supposed to solve a problem and make our lives easier. In fact. one of the most popular television programs on the air is ABC’s Shark Tank. Inventors come in with a business idea or a product that will hopefully gain the attention and investment money of a shark. 

Photo from Ivorymix 

Your girls can earn the Junior Product Designer badge by doing the following steps.

Step 1 Observe What Make a Great Product

Ask the girls how they or someone in their family washes the dishes or the counters. More than likely, they will answer a sponge. What is so great about a sponge? What would they change about it? Write downtime answers on the whiteboard if you haven or on a large piece of paper.

2. Be an Innovation Detective

Because sponges are inexpensive, you can purchase enough for each girl to have one to observe. Purchase a rectangular one, an oval one, and one that has a scrubber side. How would the girls use this product-get to the sink, have them wet them, and find out. This is actually part of Step 3, seeing how someone uses the product.

Step 3 Figure Out What’s Working and What is Not

There are problems with sponges, They get dirty and they do not always rinse clean. They smell if they are not wrung out completely. Cheap ones can break. Their design is boring.

Whatever product you selected, see how it works and how it doesn't.

Step 4 Innovate to Find Solutions

Have the girls brainstorm ideas to make the sponge even better to get rid of the problems they have.

Step 5 Mess Up So You Can Try Again!

Give the girls drawing paper, pencils and crayons and break them into small groups. Have them draw a new and improved version of their product to share with the troop.