- So today I'm going to be teaching Troop 366 about the history of eclipses, and I'm also going to be teaching safety for viewing the eclipse.

And we're going to be building an eclipse viewer so that they can take it home and possibly view the eclipse themselves.

They are a girls troop.

They joined the first day that girls could actually join the BSA.

- [Voiceover] With a passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, Angie is eager to guide Troop 366 G through their plan to view the eclipse.

- I have been teaching STEM to this troop since their inception.

So they're gonna take a box and you cut a hole in the box and you put aluminum foil over the end and you poke a hole in it and then you cut another hole on the side of the box and you put white paper inside the box.

So the sun comes through, you stand with your back to the sun, and you put the viewer kind of over your shoulder and the sun comes through the hole, the pinhole, and you look through the viewing hole on the side, and it actually shows just a picture of the sun through the pin hole for you to see the eclipse.

Okay, now...

I'm hoping that they use the boxes at least for a little while, and then view it with the eclipse viewers.

I hope that they use both ways to see which one works better.

Scouting is an amazing program.

I am a boy mom.

I don't have any girls.

So I was super excited when the girls were allowed to join, because if it would've been something that was offered when I was a kid, I would've joined in a heartbeat.

That is probably what I'm most passionate about, is teaching science and technology, engineering and math to girls, because when I was younger, it wasn't encouraged, right?

You went to school and you were going to become a teacher, or you were going to become, and those, I would love to be a teacher.

I'm not a teacher by profession.

I am a data analyst, so not the same.

But girls weren't really encouraged to be scientists or astronauts.

I was in an engineering program and I was one of the only girls in an engineering program.

So I think that it's important that they get the exposure to do those things, that it's okay, girls can do it too.

Just like the boys can.

I hope that it gives them a little bit of excitement for this.

I hope that it encourages them to look into it a little bit more, you know, delve into it a little bit deeper.

Some of the history that I'm going to tell them about, I didn't even know.

In preparing for this, I learned something.

So I'm hoping that they learn something and it ignites a spark in them to want to learn more.

- [Voiceover] Eagle Scout McKayla is inspired to acquire all the eclipse knowledge she possibly can.

- The fact that it's such an uncommon thing to see, from what I've heard at the level it'll be this year, I wanna understand how that works and why it is so rare and what makes it special.

Our troop has actually worked a lot with the people who are here today doing STEM related things.

So I feel like we've kind of fostered that environment in our troop.

And I feel like with the science merit badges that I've taught, I've tried to bring some of that into our troop as well.

We do a lot of things in the outdoors, a lot of service for the outdoors.

And so I'd really hope that their love for STEM is thriving right now.

- I love everything that there has to do about space.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut.

I mean, I'm the girl that on a clear night is looking in the sky, right?

I wanna see the stars.

I wanna teach the kids how to pick out constellations in the night sky.

And so I'm hoping that maybe this is something that they will want to do.

Good night scouts.

Dismissed.