- Accessibility
- Audio clips for reading text
- https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/web-accessibility
- Funding Issues
- Community Funding
- Philanthropy
- Should have a quick welcome statement that is catchy and tells you how to use the website
- Logo at the top left corner
- ProjectCodeEmpower should be at the top of the site before the accross bar menu thingy
- Menu in the top right corner:
- Drop down menu with options for the following
- Get Started//drop down menu
- Lessons//drop down menu
- Games//drop down menu
- About Us //drop down menu
- Mission Statement
- Who We Are
- For Parents and Educators//drop down menu, might need to add more data
- Support Us
- Contact Us
- Licensing and Copyright
- Drop down menu with options for the following
- A short video showing how kids can use CS in the real world
- We will be interviewing underrepresented minorities in CS at CU to explain why they like CS and have them answer a few quick, fun and easy prompts
- Prompts for the video:
- What is CS?
- “Computers may seem mysterious and ... but they are actually just machines which follow a series of instructions called code. People just like you learn how to tell the computers what to do by writing this “code” in a way the computer can understand.
- Why is CS interesting?
- What is really fun about CS?
- Something along the lines of this...
If they are struggling additional support will be provided
There will be a switch between the symbolic code and python. This way they can see it symbolically because it's simpler, but also apply it to real code if they are at the level to do so.
“everything within the statement gets printed” - Shown as box they can type in
“statements get printed in order, starting with the top and going down. Each statement is on its own “line””
To pass this lesson need to match statement with an example statement
For example: “print hello”.
Print something in multiple statements
“This is a variable. A variable is like a box that contains letters and numbers.”
“The box has a label this is called a variable name”
“You can label a box and fill it with letters and numbers. In programming this is called variable declaration.”
“Variables have names, you can think of this as the writing on a box. For example, you may have a box labeled “storage” in your house.”
Variables also have contents. You can think of this as the items of the box.
The first part of this lesson will involve variable declaration. It will involve pushing a bottom labeled “create variable. From there it will instruct them to pick a color. Then it will tell them to label the variable box. Next it asks them to write the contents of the box.
After declaring their first variable the program will tell them to create1 variable that contains a letter, one that contains a number, and one that creates multiple letters
As they “declare” variables they will appear in a drag and drop menu
Next, it will move onto part two. “Variables can be put in print statements. When this is done by contents of the variables will be printed.
“Try printed all the variables you declared”
“Try printing this statement “statement here” by putting it in a variable and printing it.
“You can always take objects out of a box and put new objects in it. You can do the same with variables. Try changing the value of a variable”
“Computers are like giant calculators, you can use them to do math. You can use do addition using the “+”, subtraction using “-”, division using “/” and multiplication using “*”.
“You can also check if values are equal. They are considered equal if they are identical.”
“Try printing two numbers added together.”
“Try printing division/ subtraction / multiplication”
“The equals sign checks if two values are the same. If they are the statement will be true. If not, the statement will be false. For example 4 = 4 would be true and 4 = 8 would be false”
“Try using putting setting two numbers which are equal and two numbers which are not equal in a print statement.”
“The computer can also check if letters are the same. Try putting two letters that are the same and two that are not the same in a print statement”
“Computer programs can also do math on variables. when they do this they will do math on the numbers contained within the box, also known as the content”
“Use these variables (variables with numbers will be provided on top) to print a math problem”
“Check if these number variables are equal using a print statement”
“Check if these letter variables are equal using an equals sign”
“Check if these word variables are equal using an equals sign”
“ The computer doesn’t always follow every instruction you give it. Sometimes you can specify that it should only follow instructions some of the time. This is often done by using “if” statements. They are called if statements because they specify that something should happen only if something else is true.
If statements have two parts. The first part tells the computer if the computer should follow an instruction. The second part tells the computer what instructions it should follow.”
To understand “if” statements imagine all your friends are receiving one cookie. You know that your friends should get a cookie if they have not already had one. This statement represents the first part of the if statement. The second part would be giving the cookie to the friend” - (not sure if this is the best analogy”
“The inside of this statement has already been filled in. Try making a true statement using the “=” sign to run this statement and see what happens”
“The inside of this statement has already been made. Try making a false statement inside the first part”
“Good job. As you can see nothing happened, That’s because the statement was false”
“Now the top part has already been filled in. Try printing something is the bottom part”
Now try making two “if” statements, one which is true and one which is false. They should each print something if they are true.”
“Sometimes people might want to tell a computer to do multiple instructions at once. To do this they use something called “functions”. Functions are a bit like variables. They can also be thought of as a package with a name and contents. Instead of storing numbers and letters, functions store lines of instructions for the computer. Here is an example of a function.
“Try creating a function by writing a name for it and putting lines of code inside of it.”
“Now try telling the computer to follow the instructions inside your function. You can do this by writing the name of the function under it. This is called “calling” your function. Try it”
“Try writing the name 3 times(calling it) and see what happens”
“Now try making a function that says “Hello World” and calling it.”
“There are times when you might want to do something multiple times. For example, (example). A person might also want to instruct a computer to do the same thing multiple times. To do this they often use “loops”.
“A type of loop called for loops can specify the number of times the computer will follow the instructions contained within them.”
“This is a for loop, it has a number 5 at the top meaning the computer will print the statement within it five times.”
“Try creating a for loop which runs 10 times”
“for loops often have a variable which keeps track of how many times they’ve run so far. This variable often has the label “i”. Try printing the following code to see how it works” - code prints, “This the run i” - starts with 1
Now try making a for loop that goes to 100 and prints the variable “i”.
? - User Input ?
Build a Snowman
Purpose- use code concepts to build a snowman!
Possibly building snowman parts resembles building functions and putting it together resembles calling functions
The Floor is Lava
Purpose-avoid getting roasted by navigating around a volcanic minefield
possibly create a bridge by editing math statements to make them true, or only stepping on “true” statements
could also make this about for statements
as a reverse, introduce the concept of “not” by having it reverse the truth of statements.
Surrounded by math, if you go on false statements fall into lava. //not too much math...we do not want to scare the children here! - not just math but some statements which are true or false, pretty simple thing
Four Corners
Purpose-Play the game four corners--this might get complicated so nix the idea
LeapFrog
Purpose-various events happen when you land on a leap pad or not, need to accomodate for random events in this scenario
//another idea could be janga//too complicated
Mission Statement-
Our Vision-To make Computer Science accessible to at-risk elementary school students ages 8-10 by giving them the opportunity to be exposed to Computer Science in their classrooms.
Our Goal- To empower children who use our website to explore Computer Science as a field without barriers of race, class, gender expression, socioeconmic status, caste, creed, religion, political affiliation or lack thereof, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Our Values-
Education
We believe that education is a fundamental human right that should be accessible to everyone regardless of barriers present. We value education since it is a force of empowerment and upward mobility.
Empowerment
We value empowering the next generation since that is where our future lies. By empowering youth from at-risk populations, we invest in our future as a human race.
Excitement
We value
Equity
Growth Mindset
We believe that each grade 3-5 student who accesses our website has the full potential to grow as a person using our learning materials. We also believe that any student, parent, educator, or community member who accesses our website can learn more about the basics of Computer Science!
Philanthropy
We value contributing to a greater good
Community
Who We Are
How We Started ProjectCodeEmpower:
Our People:
Webpage Creators:
- Peter Loden
- Ann Marie Mahon
- Rebecca Carr
- Maigh Kaur Jammu
Logo Creators:
FAQs
Basic FAQs to work around stereotype threat->educators and parents section
Research
Contact Us
Have any questions? Have some feedback about our website? Please fill out the below form to give us some feedback!
Licensing and Copyright
Need to include a MIT license in order to make sure we aren't breaking copyright
Blockly Licensing
Give Blockly Attrition
https://developers.google.com/blockly/guides/app-integration/attribution