Tag Archives: tascasaurus

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: Final Event

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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, just wrapped up a workshop series in New York City public schools. Newly-trained after school coordinators joined us in these workshops. We facilitated two workshops at six different middle schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Doing two workshops at each school was enough time for a thorough introduction to Hackasaurus and gave the students plenty of time to practice their new hacking skills.

On Saturday, June 2 we will host a culminating event at TASC headquarters in NYC for students and teachers who participated in the project. At the event students will share work, exchange feedback and hack some more code!

Here is a list of the six schools that participated in the Tascasaurus workshop series. All of them plan to continue using Hackasaurus in their future lesson plans.

I.S. 22
M.S. 206
P.S./M.S. 279
P.S. 59
P.S. 225
P.S. 89

The structure of each workshop remained very similar to the original lesson plan implemented at the beginning of the series. There were slight changes depending on time, student numbers, student age and equipment. The length of each workshop varied between one hour and two hours. The first workshop was an introduction to Hacking, STEM topics, HTML, CSS, Keyboard shortcuts, Image files, URL links and X-Ray Goggles. To begin, students chose from a list of STEM-related websites to hack. The list was curated according to content and code structure and included:

BIODIVERSITY
http://www.prospectpark.org/environment/wildlife

CHEMISTRY
http://www.ptable.com/
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml

OUTER SPACE
http://www.space.com/
http://women.nasa.gov/

MATH
http://www.nbclearn.com/nfl

OTHER SCIENCE
http://www.greatscienceforgirls.org/

In the second workshop students were given a design challenge and self evaluation. Below is an image of a simple point system we created for them to evaluate their newly acquired skills. They accumulated points based on how much/what type of code they hacked. This was a fun way for us to see what they learned and for the students to compare points with one another.

The series was a huge success with the students. They remained completely engaged and focused on remixing code into something they could call their own. Here are some pictures of hacks they created using the website http://www.greatscienceforgirls.org/:

Upon completion of the June 2 culminating event, we will share a  finalized curriculum, educator tips, student examples and feedback from the participants….so stay tuned!

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!