Lists, Loops, and Traversals - Lesson 13: Project - Hackathon Part 1

Overview

This is the first day of a five-day unit project. Students begin the project by choosing a partner, determining a dataset to design the app around, and creating a paper prototype.

Goals

Students will be able to:

• Effectively plan a project using a paper prototype
• Determine a dataset for project usage

Purpose

Students will demonstrate their app design and programming skills throughout this five day project. In addition, students work with a dataset as this ensures students will be using the types of programming constructs required for the Create Performance Task, which this project is designed as a practice for. Students complete the project by individually filling out a Written Response, modeled after the Create PT.

This project can be used as a unit project, or as an end cap to the first semester of the course.

Resources

• CSP-Widgets repository
• CSP Unit 5 Hackathon Project - Written Response
• CSP Unit 5 Hackathon Project - Planning Guide

Getting Started (3 minutes)

Intro the Project

• Today we are beginning the Hackathon Project, which is an opportunity for you to show off what you've learned so far.
• What is a hackathon? Traditionally, hackathons are events where people come together to build something creative in a short amount of time. Sometimes hackathons are centered around a goal or a problem to solve. Usually team members take on different roles (programming, designing, etc.) to get the project done within the time limit.
• You will work with a partner on the Hackathon Project, using a database to create an interesting app.

Activity (40 minutes)

Hackathon Prep

Group: Place students in groups of two.

Distribute: Pass out the CSP Unit 5 Hackathon Project - Planning Guide - one per group.

Read: As a class, read through the Project Description on the Planning Guide.

Hackathon Project

Step 1: Students inspect the data files in the Data folder in the Unit_ProjectTemplate project. Have students select a dataset that looks interesting to them.

Step 2: Now students select how they will traverse a list pulled from their chosen dataset. Using the Planning Guide, students select whether they will use the filter, map, or reduce pattern and explain the specifics.

• Filter (most common option): use the list from one column to determine information that will be filtered from a list created by another column
  • Example: dogHeight filters dogNames, so only the names of small dogs are added to the filtered list
• Map: Add or change each item in a list
  • Example: map a list of numbers pulled from a column using Round(number) - now each number is rounded
• Reduce: Reduce the data in a list to a single number
  • Example: find the smallest number in a list

Step 3: The majority of the lesson should be spent on creating a detailed paper prototype. Students work together to design the screens of their app and design the flow from one screen to the next.

• Draw a prototype which shows how your app will actually run.
• Include all the buttons, text, and images that the user will be able to use and see.
• Write notes or draw arrows showing how different user interface elements should work. For example, if clicking a button takes me to another screen, I should draw an arrow from that button to the drawing of the screen.

Wrap Up (2 minutes)

Remarks

• In the next lesson, you will decide your project roles and we will begin to translate your paper prototype to the screen.

Assessment: Optional

Planning Guide: As an optional completion assessment, you can look at steps 1-3 in the Planning Guide.

Standards Alignment

• CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017): 3A-AP-14, 3A-AP-16, 3A-AP-22, 3A-AP-23

Next Tutorial

In the next tutorial, we will discuss Code.Org Unit 5 Lesson 14, which describes Project Day 2.