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Ready to take your Cadettes on an outdoor adventure with a purpose? Earning the Cadette Eco Trekker Badge is an incredible way for Middle School Girl Scouts to challenge themselves, build essential trail skills, and learn how to protect vulnerable natural spaces.

Planning an eco trek can feel like a lot to coordinate, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! To help you lead a successful, stress-free adventure, we’ve broken down all five badge requirements into simple, actionable steps with low-prep activities and resources your girls will love.

Our exclusive “Random Acts of Eco Kindness” activity grid to help girls practice being kind to the Earth during your meetings, at home, and when outside.

➡️ Get the free download pdf.

Step 1: Learn how to make a minimal impact on a trek

The 7 Principles of Leave No Trace provide an easily understood framework of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors. Visit LNT.org for quizzes, activities, and videos.

➡️Headover to LNT.org

Step 2: Plan an eco trek with a purpose

Find out how you can help prevent invasive species from being
introduced into the area. Make a plan for an outdoor trek where you can
explore an invasive species.

➡️Find a park near you.

Step 3: Practice an eco skill on your trek

From NSF | The Public Health and Safety Organization.

Ensuring your drinking water is clean and safe is a vital skill for any outdoor adventure or emergency situation. Discover the essential techniques and top health standards needed to properly filter and treat water on the trail.

➡️ Learn about purifying water.

Step 4: Make a difference on your eco trek

Learn about endangered species in your area. 
Teach your friends and family about the wonderful wildlife, birds, fish and plants that live near you. The first step to protecting endangered species is learning about how interesting and important they are. Our natural world provides us with many indispensable services including clean air and water, food and medicinal sources, commercial, aesthetic and recreational benefits.

➡️ 10 things you can do to protect endangered species in your area.

Step 5: Make a difference after your eco trek

The impact of an eco trek shouldn’t end when you leave the trail. Turn Clean-Up Trash into Advocacy Art: If your troop collected bottle caps, plastic scraps, or clean litter during their trek, don’t just throw it away. Gather the materials to create an eye-catching recycled art display or a trash map to share at a local school or community center to raise awareness about pollution

➡️ Get complete instructions

With these steps in your leader toolkit, your Cadettes are ready to lace up their hiking boots and head out on an unforgettable eco-trek with confidence! Watching them take charge of their own planning and community advocacy is exactly what scouting is all about.

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Spotlight is on Karena Seraphin, Emergency Medical Technician

When someone has a medical emergency and calls 9-1-1, an ambulance will arrive. Karena is one of the EMTs who will give first aid to an injured person until they an get to a hospital. She will assess the person’s injuries, provide treatment, and help transport the patient.

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This printable worksheet is designed for Cadette Scouts to dive deeper into identifying, preventing, and treating serious weather-related conditions like heat stroke, hypothermia, and frostbite.

Badge Ready: Fits perfectly into your Cadette First Aid badge requirements – Step 5.

Instant Download: Print right away for your next troop meeting or outdoor training session.

Age-Appropriate Content: Tailored for older girls looking to build real-world emergency prep and leadership skills.

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Emergency situations don’t come with a warning label, but your Cadette troop can still be 100% prepared. Whether they are gearing up for a backcountry hike or mentoring younger scouts, learning advanced first aid is one of the most empowering milestones in a Girl Scout’s journey. Here are some hands-on, high-energy ideas to help your Cadettes master their First Aid badge requirements while having a blast.

Looking for a quick, educational activity for your next troop meeting? These Printable First Aid Cards make learning safety fun and accessible. Print them out, cut them into handy flashcards, and let your girls practice responding to different scenarios. Makes great SWAPS also.

➡️ Get the free first aid card PDF Download

Step 1: Know how to use everything in a first aid kit

Bring a poorly stocked, expired, or bare-minimum first aid kit and a pile of random medical supplies. Challenge the girls to critique the kit, remove useless items, and rebuild an ultimate emergency kit.

➡️See the complete list from the Red Cross

Step 2: Understand how to prevent and respond to choking emergencies

Choking requires fast, confident action. This step is about teaching middle-schoolers to recognize the universal sign of choking and to lose their fear of stepping in, and maybe save a life.

➡️See the Mayo Clinic website for full instructions

Step 3: Find out how to handle outdoor musculoskeletal injuries

A Step-by-step professional tutorial showing exactly how to wrap a joint to reduce swelling. For a hands-on experience, pair the girls up. Give them 5 minutes to find items strictly around the meeting room or campsite (like magazines, sticks, hoodies, or ruler sticks) to safely immobilize a “broken” arm or “sprained” ankle using an ACE bandage or scout bandana.

Step 4: Learn how to recognize and respond to seizures

Seizures can be intimidating to witness if you don’t know what’s happening. Demystify this by teaching the girls the “Stay, Safe, Side” protocol.

Stay: Stay calm and time the seizure.
Safe: Move hard or sharp objects away from the person. Gently cushion their head (never hold them down or put anything in their mouth!).
Side: Once the shaking stops, gently turn them onto their side (recovery position) to keep their airway clear.

➡️See this PDF from the Epilepsy Foundation for more information

Step 5: Learn to prevent and treat temperature-related health emergencies

Cadettes love outdoor adventures, making this crucial for camping and hiking trips. They need to know how to spot the early warning signs of heat stroke vs. heat exhaustion, and hypothermia.

➡️Download this weather-related project

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It’s normal for anyone to feel nervous when calling for help, but knowing exactly what happens on the other side of the phone can help your Juniors stay calm and collected. Here is the step-by-step breakdown of how a 911 call works:

1. The Call Connects to a Dispatcher: When you dial 911, your call goes to a local emergency dispatch center. A trained professional called an Emergency Dispatcher will answer and immediately ask: “911, what is your emergency and where is your location?”
2. They Ask Crucial Questions: The dispatcher’s job is to gather information as quickly as possible. They will ask questions like:
   • What happened?
   • Are you in danger right now?
   • Is the person awake and breathing?
3. Help is Sent Immediately: A common misconception is that help isn’t sent until the phone call ends. In reality, while one dispatcher is keeping you on the line to gather details, another dispatcher is already sending the police, fire trucks, or an ambulance to your location!
4. Staying on the Line: The dispatcher will stay on the phone with you until the first responders (like EMTs, firefighters, or police officers) arrive at the scene. They might even give you step-by-step first aid instructions to follow while you wait.

This is an excellent teaching tool for older scouts do with younger scouts.

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