Author Archives: juliavallera

Brooklyn Explorers: Follow-Up Training at Partnership for After School Education (PASE)

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This post was written by Julia Vallera, an artist and educator working with Hive NYC on Brooklyn Explorers and other youth-serving projects.

Training picture collage

Image courtesy of Yvonne Brathwaite @PASEsetter

This year, Hive NYC is partnering with PASE (Partnership for After School Education) to add a Mozilla Webmaker component to the Brooklyn Explorers Program.  The program provides 4th-6th graders attending Brooklyn-based afterschool programs with experiential learning activities that explore different neighborhoods and expose them to the rich assets in these areas. Hive NYC will help them turn their experiences into dynamic web content via tools like Thimble and Popcorn. Six Brooklyn-based schools and centers are participating.

Our initial training was back in January and lasted for two days. It was a thorough introduction to the curriculum, activities and tools. Last week we held a follow-up training for the educators running the Brooklyn Explorers program. We practiced using the Webmaker tools and talked about the process of getting content from the students’ activities onto the web. This flow chart was a guide through that discussion.

BE Media Flow Chart

After a brief recap we jumped right into the webmaking tools. A few of the participants had been practicing Thimble, so they already had great questions for me related to HTML, browsers and CSS.

Screen Shot 2013-03-15 at 12.43.52 PM

The training was divided into two parts: Thimble Lab and Popcorn Lab. Each were about 45 minutes. Three templates were provided for the educators to hack. They chose which one they wanted to use based on difficulty level.

Screen Shot 2013-03-15 at 1.30.50 PM

Everyone was hard at work for the rest of the session, and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! It was great to see everyone having “ah-ha” moments as they were getting the code to do what they wanted.

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We talked about how the students will be going through the same exact process and will dig into the code the same way. Through April and May, I will be visiting each site to assist with the Webmaker tools. MOUSE youth (also known as digital ambassadors) will be joining me to assist as well.  I am excited to see the student’s work in the coming months!

Go Brooklyn Explorers!

TASCasaurus Curriculum Now Available: STEM + Remixing the Web

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This post was written by Julia Vallera, an artist and educator working with Hive NYC on TASCasaurus and other youth-serving projects.

Screen Shot 2013-01-21 at 1.29.49 PMWe are proud to announce the recent publication of the TASCasaurus curriculum! This curriculum began in April 2012 when Hive NYC, The After School Corporation (TASC) and MOUSE embarked on a four-month workshop series at six different middle schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx.  From April – June, newly-trained after school coordinators joined us in facilitating these workshops for youth between the ages of 11 – 14. Together, students, teachers and facilitators learned about the benefits of hacking, webmaking, and collaborating in the context of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).

The resulting curriculum is an in-depth description of the activities, lesson plans, tools, outcomes and discussions from the workshop series. It is meant to be shared and adapted by anyone hoping to facilitate similar workshops within their community. The curriculum is broken down into three parts. Each has unique lessons, which include background, preparation and process. Each lesson comes with a materials list and supporting guide sheets. It breaks down more or less like this:

Introduction for Educators
- What is Hackasaurus?
Section 1: Introduction to Hacking (45 min.)
- Objective
- Materials
- Background/Preparation
- Lesson Outline
- Lesson Procedure
Section 2: Introduction to HTML (45 min.)
- Objective
- Background/Preparation
- Lesson Outline
- Lesson Procedure
- Guide Sheets
Section 3: Incorporating STEM (45 min.)
- Objective
- Background/Preparation
- Lesson Outline
- Lesson Procedure
- Resources

The timing and breakdown can be adjusted according to your teaching needs and/or student needs. The lessons can also be adapted to different topics that may not fit into the STEM categories. We encourage you to share the TASCasaurus curriculum and use it as needed. Please send us feedback and comments when you do!

Tascasaurus: Workshop Series

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This post was written by Julia Vallera, an artist and educator working with Hive NYC on Tascasaurus and other youth-serving projects. Tascasaurus, a Hive NYC program in partnership with The After School Corporation (TASC) and MOUSE, is full steam ahead with its workshop series in New York City public schools. Newly trained after school coordinators are joining us in these workshops. Our first visits were to P.S. 89 in Brooklyn (March 30) and P.S. 206 in the Bronx (April 5). Each workshop had a slightly different set up and number of students. The variation is interesting and provides insight for future workshops. Here are some details:

  P.S. 89 – Brooklyn, NY P.S. 279 – Bronx, NY
Participants:
  • 14 students
  • 2 youth leaders (from MOUSE)
  • 1 school coordinator
  • 1 staff from TASC
  • 25 students
  • 2 youth leaders (from MOUSE)
  • 2 school coordinators
  • 1 school technical intern
  • 2 staff from TASC
  • 1 visitor from Fhi360
Computers
  • 1 laptop/ student
  • 1 desktop/ student
Internet
  • Wireless
  • Ethernet (no wireless)
Projector
  • Yes
  • Yes
Browser
  • Safari
  • Safari
Location
  • School Library
  • School computer lab
Time
  • 3:30 – 4:30
  • 3:00 – 4:00
Other details
  • Desktop control capabilities from main computer

To save time we did a few things before the workshop started that were very helpful:

  1. Turn computers on
  2. Test internet connection
  3. Open Hackasaurus.org on all computers
  4. Test Hackasaurus Goggles on all computers
  5. Review various roles of workshop facilitators

With only one hour for each workshop we try to use time as efficiently as possible. We learn new things at every workshop and will continue to make improvements, but so far it has gone something like this:


Most of the workshops were spent playing with the Hackasaurus tool. Everyone loved that part the most. But before we did that it was helpful to discuss important terms like HACK, STEM, HTML and REMIX. These concepts were new to most participants, but after a fun discussion they were quick to catch on.
For example, the word “hack” can be confusing sometimes. We started by looking at the definition in the dictionary:

hack : http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hacking

  1. To cut or chop with repeated and irregular blows
  2. To break up the surface of (soil)
  3. To alter (a computer program): hacked her text editor to read HTML
  4. To gain access to (a computer file or network) illegally or without authorization: hacked the firm’s personnel database
We came up with ideas about how hacking applies to many non-digital things and the benefits hacking has on learning.
 
After a brief introduction to HTML and CSS everyone was given a STEM challenge. They had the option to choose from one of three STEM categories (in this case it was Biodiversity, Chemistry and Outer Space). They used the websites provided or found their own. Pretty soon, all Hackasaurus X-ray goggles were activated and remixing the web began!
April 16 is our second workshop at P.S 279 and May 4 is our second workshop at P.S. 89. We are looking forward to them and can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!
More workshops are coming up at four other public schools in NYC, so stay tuned!