App Inventor 3 hour workshop for students
Remember to take good pictures. Examples can be found here: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/2242.
Tips for outreach with App Inventor
Ages: middle school to high school
Equipment: One laptop, earbud or headphone, and charged phone/tablet for each 1-2 students (1 per student if we have enough laptops and phones for that). The phone or tablet must be on the same network as the
laptop for the wireless connection to work. The phones or tables must have the MIT AI Companion 2 app loaded from the Google Play store.
Printed copies of the App Inventor Reference (at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/639).
FortuneTeller reference (at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/734), Speak It reference (at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/755), and MusicMaker reference (at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/687). Blank paper and pencils or markers so that the students can design their own app (if we have time). You might want to collect all of the head phones and chargers from the boxes and ask the students to sign out the headphones if they need them. We have had chargers and headphones disappear. Remember to take good pictures examples can be found here: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/2242.
Resources: There are slides for introducing App Inventor at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/639 and a reference document at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/639. We use ice.programs1@gmail.com - ice.programs45@gmail.com as logins. The password is the same for all the accounts and Annette has it.
Other website with interesting mobile apps that help people: http://mashable.com/2012/12/10/problems-solved-by-tech/
See also lots of great stories for how people are using App Inventor at http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/stories.html
Instructions for how to set up a phone to work with App Inventor http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/setup/phone.html
Before each workshop
During each workshop
15 minutes: pre-surveys. We must have a pre-survey from each student who attends!
15 minutes:
Introductions - introduce each of the workers and say why you are interested in computing. Tell them where the bathrooms are. Show them http://dotdiva.org/profiles/siobhan.html and http://dotdiva.org/profiles/macherie.html. Tell them that there are lots of jobs making apps and that apps have been created to track the clothes that teens lend each other, help pregnant women get prenatal care, help mental health workers in Africa, and help find invasive plants in parks. Ask what some of their favorite apps are. Ask how do they interact with the app (touch something, drag something, click a button). Ask them what types of skills are needed to create apps (include art, music, design, etc)
45 minutes:
Show them how to turn on the phones and unlock them. Have them start App Inventor http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu. They can use their own Google account if they have one or one of ours. Have them download the source for the Xylophone app (or preload it on the phones for them to save time) from http://www.appinventor.org/xylophone-steps. Show they how to upload the source and download it to their phone or emulator. Show them that they can replay the songs or reset to clear the memory. Show them how to create the Cowbell App (see http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/730) or give them the choice to do HelloPurr if they want http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/content/hellopurr.html. Students who finish early can try to the challenges like creating an app with a picture of hands clapping and a clapping sound. People who come late or get behind can use the Cowebell_Starter which has the user interface done. For younger students start with Cowebell_Starter and have them save that project with their initials. Have these students start at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/741
45 minutes:
Do the FortuneTeller app (http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/734). For younger girls start with FortuneTeller_Starter at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/736. Encourage the students to create their own fortunes. If they would rather do Magic 8 ball then can at http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/teach/magic-8-ball.html.
30 minutes:
Show them other projects like MusicMaker, SpeakIt, MoleMash, Timer , Mini Golf, and PhotoBooth and the MIT tutorials at http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/tutorials.html. Let them work on modifying one of the apps that they created or doing more projects from the distance learning site or from the MIT tutorials. You can also show them the App Inventor gallery at http://gallery.appinventor.mit.edu.
15 minutes:
Have some students show what they created.
15 minutes:
post-surveys - We must have a post-survey from each student who attends!
Remind the students that they can do more projects from home using our distance learning website at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/. Show them the resources page at http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/643. Point out that there is a free on-line book for App Inventor at http://www.appinventor.org/book
Links to this Page