Grace Faulk, a sophomore at FHS, recently completed her Girl Scout Gold Award. Faulk has been a Girl Scout since she was five years old. In order to earn her gold award, she decided to create an educational nature walk about invasive and native plant species. A nature walk is a trail that is specifically designed to educate people about a certain subject. The nature walk that Faulk created has placards with information about different invasive and native species, along with a QR code people can scan to find out more.
The nature walk begins up the hill from the JV softball field on the FHS campus. First, nature walkers scan a QR code on a pole marked with a flag, showing them an introductory slide that tells them about what’s happening with the project, and it gives a little map on how to get around. There are 10 signs in total, and five invasive and five native plants are featured. Each sign has a common name, a scientific name and then its classification whether it’s native or invasive. It also has two pictures and a QR code. Then students scan the QR code and it takes them to an informational slide that tells them more about the plant. “I’m hoping people will learn the difference between natives and invasives and how they can identify them and take care of them, or get rid of them if it’s invasive, so then we can help fuel our gardens to be better,” said Faulk.
Faulk wants to go into an environmental and agricultural career, and this is a good stepping stone to get into that field. The Girl Scout Gold Award requires many components to earn, one of them being working with a team of experts. Faulk’s team consisted of Dawn Filipowicz, Jonathan Kraut and Susan Hilleary and the project was funded by John Marshall Soil and Water Conservation. Another requirement is to either have completed two Senior or Ambassador Journeys or have earned the Girl Scout Silver Award and completed one Senior or Ambassador Journey. For her Silver Award, Faulk worked at a nearby baseball field, fixing pitching machines and putting lights on flag poles to illuminate the flags. “It was very different to what I did this year, but it was an interesting learning experience that prepared me for my gold,” she said.
