12: Paint Pot 2

Activity 12: Paint Pot 2

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Activity Description

30 min.

In this activity girls will apply the concept of (global) variables to their app to allow the user to change the radius of the dot that they draw on the canvas.

Objectives

By completing this activity girls will

apply their understanding of abstraction and variables to enhance their existing mobile app.
use their understanding of variables to make their existing mobile app program user customizable.

How to Implement

Review variables. Talk about how naming a variable with a label (such as “firstName” from the Poetic Variables activity) is an example of abstraction—the practice of simplifying complex data, especially data that needs to be changed by the user.
Girls will work in the same teams as they did for the previous Paint Pot activity.
In this challenge the girls will adapt the app to allow users to change their brush size.
Have the girls go to Thunkable and open their last Paint Pot file. They should do a Save As and name this file with the corresponding number of the tutorial.
- TeamNamePaintPot2_V1
Next the girls will follow along with the Paint Pot 2 tutorial.
Wrap-up discussion
- Abstraction is sometimes defined as "reducing information and detail to focus on what's relevant." In your opinion, does the use of the dotsize variable fit this definition? Why or why not?

Resources & Materials

Per group:

Paint Pot 2 tutorial (also linked on For the Girls)
tablet
laptop

Notes to Educators

There is a common misconception that the dotSize+1 will change the dot size, and so students will often leave out the set/get block. Remind girls of the envelopes in the Poetic Variables Activity. DotSize+1 only creates a numeric value; you need the set block to store the value (like putting the name in the envelope) and the get block to call the value (like taking it out of the envelope).

Standards Alignment

Interim CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards: 1B-A-2-1, 1B-A-5-3, 1B-A-5-4, 1B-A-5-5, 1B-A-3-7, 2-A-5-7, 2-A-6-10

Next Generation Science Standards: 3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: 6.EE.6

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: W.5.2d, W.5.6, SL.5.1, L.5.6, SL.6.1, SL.6.6, RST.6.3, RST.6.4

Attribution

This work, “Paint Pot 2” is a derivative of “Paint Pot” by App Inventor, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, licensed under CC by SciGirls

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