Cycle Five: Coding Applications in Animation, Games, and Robotics

Happy Women's History Month! Artists use specific design practices to address the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Select one from all year to practice in depth or combine two processes with yourself or a partner. We'll focus on how women in STEAM are combining artistic and engineering practice to make art and compassionate tech.

SEL Warm Up

Visual Journaling, grounding yourself in the moment with Sketch.io Explore a range of emotional symbolism with a range of mark making, color gradients, and clip art.

We've had so many events happening as we transition to hybrid. Sit, reflect, and explore your takeaways with images or words that come to mind. You can explore typography if words come to you first. Remember, also there is a difference between positive self talk and toxic positivity. It's ok to feel upset during a pandemic. Saying no can help you find your yes and if you don't acknowledge bad feelings, it affects your needs and your instincts. It's all about finding or returning to your balance every day.

Vector Graphics, Coding & Robotics

"We can change how we feel about robots through art...there is an innate choreography to everything we do."

Catie Cuan argues that robots should be choreographed to interact with humans in the medical industry to promote more feelings of security and safety as processes become more automated. Learn how dancers teach robots how to move with machine learning and choreography, along with how machine learning affects their choreography. Coding language is the same methodology as dancing. Both require specific sequences, repetition loops, pauses and methods to perform different styles of dance (like Javascript, Ruby, or Jquery).

Learn more in this New York Times article. Pause to think, question, wonder, about the photos you see.

Instructional Resources

Vector graphics and coding can be intimidating, but we've got you!

Use Google Slides to make manipulatives, tanagrams, and puzzle to visually chunk the information.

For coding, gradually build in more complexity with each challenge or practice using the same 2 block code combination for a quarter to deepen your knowledge of one skill across multiple projects.

For vector graphics, have students practice sketching using the shape tool in Google Slides, Jamboard, Sketch.io and Scratch.

Instructional Tools: User Experience Design (UX/UI) with Figma, Adobe Spark, and Pop! Marvel App

If you want to focus more on prototyping and developing your mobile app idea more than coding it, we've got you, too! You don't have to know how to code to make an app. You can partner with a programmer and build a team! Apps and games aren't made by one person--multiples designers and programmers work together to make the apps you love.

Did you know that most designers wireframe or prototype their ideas on paper or post its first? If you don't have technology in your room, you can still teach this high-demand User Experience Design Skill (UX/UI).

Figma is free and industry standard. You can also practice this in Adobe Spark and Marvel Pop! App.

Virtual Field Trip