SAO' Girls Who Code, info for parents, lesson notes, projects, resources

Graphic Organizers and Data Representations

Graphic Organizers and Data Representations

In the 3rd – 5th grade Girls Who Code clubs, the emphasis is less on learning a particular coding language and more on CS principles, core concepts, and computational thinking. Building their own graphic organizer can be a foundational activity because the kids see how different types of data are better suited for different display types.

And I just love flippity.net for these tasks. It’s both a great tool for students and teachers, with a UI that is simple and flexible.

Flippity starts with a google spreadsheet, where the A and B columns are questions and answers (or answers and questions, depending on what you’re building). You can import something that you already made for another project, or whip it up from scratch. After publishing the spreadsheet, it then generates any of a dozen or so graphic organizers from your data. And many of the options are interchangeable, so you can view one spreadsheet via multiple representations. The basics are flash cards, BINGO cards, matching cards, and self-paced quizzes. On the more creative side, there are cross-word puzzles, word searches, and quiz shows. There are also a couple of features aimed at teachers and classroom management, like random name pickers, random group assignments, and seating charts.

Here are some examples that we’ve been playing around with. We’ve been re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone over at Wizarding World. Wizarding World has quizzes and projects to go along with each chapter, but with flippity, it’s just as easy to make your own.

Let’s start with a crossword puzzle, and if you’re following along in real time, this should take about 5 minutes. You start at flippity.net and open the “instructions” tab on the crossword button. Give it a quick read, then click the “template” link in Step 1.

Before you do anything else, rename the file. Then enter as many terms as you want in the A column (“word”) and a hint or definition in the B column (“clue”). When you’re done, go to File —> Publish. After publishing, switch from the Demo tab (at the bottom of the page) to the “Get the link here” tab.

Click that link, and you now have a crossword puzzle that you can either share from the final destination page or by sharing the supporting spreadsheet. Want to change or update it? Because it’s a published Google Sheet, any changes are automagically updated. Or, create a copy and build a new puzzle.

Building a cross-word puzzle takes all of five minutes with flippity.net

Some examples you can copy and reuse:

Beginner’s Harry Potter Crossword

Wizarding World Word Search

BINGO Card for Chapter 14, Philosopher’s Stone (used for practicing listening skills — they mark off a word when they hear it while listening to the audiobook at Wizarding World)

After making a couple of these for the kids, they were able to use the app themselves to make puzzles for each other, reinforcing a lot of the concepts that they have learned in Bacon’s technology classes.

Good luck, have fun, and let me know if you ran into any problems, have any questions, or have some cool ideas to share. And don’t forget to check out our other lessons plans here.

SAO' Girls Who Code, projects, women in tech

Ready, Set, Dub-Dub

WWDC is an exciting time, even if this is your first year of a 3rd-5th grade coding club and completing your first app is still a few miles down the road. The breakout sessions, labs, and work groups might be beyond what we’re doing right now, but there will still be a lot of fun news and cool demos when the first virtual version of the conference kicks off.
To get into the Dub-Dub spirit, here’s a fun activity from one of my favorite tech+education gurus, the Tech Rabbi. (He’s also the author of Educated by Design, one of the books used by our Futures Lab for their Design Thinking class.)

He uses Adobe Spark Post in this tutorial, but there’s a link in the video notes to use KeyNote (or, I guess, Slides would also work.)

To get started, you’re going to screenshot the Memoji you create in the iOS Message app. You’re looking for the version with the MacBook. You can use a white background, but if you want to superimpose it over the group shot at the WWDD site, you’ll want to switch your iOS devise over to night mode.

Find the MacBook image, 3D-press to get a bigger view, and use Dark mode for a background that matches the WWDC banner

After that, it’s just a matter of collecting some images to use as laptop stickers (his recommendation of Clean PNG helps a lot, because you don’t have to worry about backgrounds) and then shrinking them down and placing them on the MacBook. You can then screenshot your image to use wherever you need a profile pic.

Collect your sticker images, size them down, and cover your lid with them. Hint: if you put them along the sides, a slight rotation outward looks more realistic.

And if you used a black background, then you can make a group photo by taking a screenshot of the image over at the WWDC Ready, Set, Code page.

I can’t talk about WWDC without reminding everyone that this year Apple has added a Student Swift Project Challenge. Hopefully a lot of the kids in the Futures Lab will get to submit something.

And, speaking of summer student opportunities, another reminder that the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program is going virtual this year. Open to all 9th-11th graders, this two-week program teaches girls the computer science skills they need to make an impact in their community while preparing for a career in tech. Participants will get exposure to tech jobs, and join a supportive sisterhood of girls in tech.