Objective:

Students will evaluate and refine design solutions for improving recycling at school, practicing how to gather and analyze feedback to iterate on their design. They will use computational thinking to decompose the problem into subproblems, ensuring each part of the recycling process is optimized.

Materials Needed:

• Poster boards or large paper for design solutions

• Markers for illustrating designs

• Survey templates for gathering feedback

Steps:

• Introduction:

  • Begin by discussing the importance of recycling in maintaining sustainability and ecosystem services. 

  • Explain that students will break down the recycling process into smaller parts and design new bins that promote better recycling practices.

• Group Activity:

  • Divide students into small teams. 

  • Each team will brainstorm and create a visual design for a recycling bin system, considering ease of use, accessibility, and environmental impact. 

  • Students will collaborate and use charts to organize their ideas.

• Feedback and Refinement:

  • Students conduct mock interviews with classmates, collecting feedback on their designs. 

  • After gathering input, they iterate on their designs by addressing the feedback received, ensuring the bin design is user-friendly and functional.

• Presentation and Discussion:

  • Teams will present their designs, explaining how they decomposed the problem of recycling into smaller parts, incorporated feedback, and improved the design. 

  • Discuss how the process of breaking down problems and refining solutions mirrors real-world design work.

Equity and Access:

Offer structured guidance and templates for students who need extra support in creating their designs, and ensure diverse perspectives are included in the feedback process to foster an inclusive design approach.

Real-World Application:

Relate the lesson to real-world recycling program designs, emphasizing how engineers and environmentalists work together to create systems that are easy to use, environmentally friendly, and effective.

CS Practice(s):

• Foster an Inclusive Computing Culture: Students solicit feedback from diverse users and modify designs accordingly to be more inclusive.

• Collaborating Around Computing: Students work in teams to create and refine their recycling designs based on peer feedback.

• Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems: Students break down the recycling system into subproblems, addressing each step in the process through their design solutions.

Standard(s):

• CA NGSS MS-LS2-5

• CA NGSS MS-ETS1-4

• CA CS 6-8.AP.15

Objective:

Students will design and develop a recycling awareness app using App Lab or another app creation platform, applying computational thinking to create abstractions and simplify complex tasks. They will gather user feedback to refine their app, ensuring it meets the needs of classmates.

Materials Needed:

• Computers or tablets with App Lab access (https://code.org/educate/applab)

Steps:

• Introduction:

  • Discuss the importance of recycling and ask students to brainstorm how technology can raise awareness and change behaviors. 

  • Introduce the task of designing an app that encourages classmates to recycle more effectively.

• Group Activity:

  • In pairs, students survey classmates to understand their recycling habits. 

  • Using this data, they identify key features their app should include. 

  • Students then use an app design platform to create an interactive app that simplifies recycling information through abstractions like sorting games and quizzes.

• Creating and Coding:

  • As students build their apps, they use coding concepts like abstraction to design functions that simplify repetitive tasks. 

  • They ensure the app provides clear, interactive instructions on how to recycle different materials.

• Testing and Refining:

  • Students test their app with classmates, gathering feedback on usability and accessibility. 

  • After analyzing the data, they refine the app to address any difficulties users had, ensuring that the app is inclusive and user-friendly.

• Presentation and Discussion:

  • Students present their app to the class, explaining how they used abstraction to simplify the recycling process and how peer feedback helped them refine their design. 

  • Discuss how technology and feedback can improve societal challenges like recycling.

Equity and Access:

Provide pre-made app templates for students who need additional support, and ensure diverse perspectives are included in the testing phase to make the app more accessible to all users.

Real-World Application:

Relate this lesson to app development in real-world industries, emphasizing how companies use user feedback to refine their products and how technology can be used to solve environmental problems like waste management.

CS Practice(s):

• Foster an Inclusive Computing Culture: Students solicit feedback from diverse users and modify designs accordingly to be more inclusive.

• Developing and Using Abstractions: Students simplify complex app components into reusable functions, making their app design more efficient and user-friendly.

• Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts: Students gather peer feedback, iteratively improving their app to better meet user needs.

Standard(s):

• CA NGSS MS-LS2-5

• CA NGSS MS-ETS1-4

• CA CS 6-8.AP.15