CS for Social Good

Draw your amazing app idea to make a difference! 

Some things you need to know:

• This idea is quite open-ended.  While it can be a stand-alone assignment, it could also be connected to a book you are reading to the class or a social/emotional issue that you need to resolve in your classroom.

• This is connected to computer science because of the creativity and design aspects of the assignment.  To create programs, students of all ages need to plan and design before they code.  Doing this takes practice and discipline.  It is never too soon to start!  

• Students should use a piece of paper to draw their idea for a program to make a difference in their home or school.  They should present their ideas to their friends and, if possible, to a larger group. 

Save the beach babies!  

Learn to program using basic commands and clean up the beach to protect ocean life. 

Some things you need to know:

• Sign in is required; this is Student Data Compliant.

• Here is a link to the lesson

• You will need to register to view full teacher resources.  

• This lesson could fill some science and ELA standards.

• Students can login or or play without saving here.  

• To get to Beach Cleanup you may need to go through the opening video and choose “Beach Cleanup”.

• I recommend showing this video to your class.  It frames the problem nicely and it introduces the activity.

• First press the blue button to place the start. Then make a path that moves from the start to the end.  Then press “Play”.  The write code to move character over the path.

Spread the LOVE!  Make a card for someone you care about. 

Some things you need to know: 

• Here is a link to the lesson and resources.

• Students will be creating this project on scratch.  Link to scratch is here.

• It is a good idea to ask students to come into class with an image of them with whomever is going to be the lucky recipient of the card.

• Talk students through why they need to put their image in a place that it will be easy for them to find it and why the image cannot be shared from Google Drive or some other online location like Google Photos.  Because students have come to rely on these online environments, they may need help putting files onto their computers and finding them when they are there.

• For beginning programmers, making this card will be enough.  For more advanced programmers, encourage them to have their sprite dance by using loops, multiple costumes.

Create Poem Art for someone you care about

Some things you need to know:

• Here is a link to the activity.  

• Teacher notes are here.

• The activity centers around a meme for social activist Dolores Huerta.  

  • Students should create their own meme.  

  • Students could choose any person from any subject.  

Use data to tell a story.

Some things you need to know:

• There is no official lesson here.  The focus is how students can use Gapminder as a tool to tell a story to reveal social inequities, as well as possible solutions.

• Here is a (written) lesson designed for teachers to help you see the power of this tool.  This (less than 5 min) video could be viewed instead.   Hans Rosling is trying to use data to make the case that the last 200 years have been a time period of extreme social and economic change.

• Suggested Lesson:

  • Hook: have students try this quiz on the GapMinder home page.

  • Show this Ted Talk (20 min) or this video (5 min) to introduce how data can be used to tell important (and influential) stories.

  • Ask students to go to GapMinder and use the Tools there to tell their own story with data.  Students could narrate it as Hans Rosling does in class or in video form! 

• Note that there are also compelling stories told using data that are on this site that could be incorporated in several classes.  For example, notice Dollar Street, where images and stories of families around the world at various income levels are told. 

Play NovaLab's Cybersecurity Game.

Some things you need to know:

• Here is a video intro.

• The game link is here.

• The teacher guide is here.

• Students will need to sign in with their google account.  

• This game was designed to help students understand that cybersecurity is a balancing act between security for people using a system and the things people need to access and change that are on that system.