The Solutioneers Week 10: Connected
Screen shot from The Solutioneers Episode 10
This week's episodes and hands-on activity explore Apps and Social Networks.
BACK TO THE SOLUTIONEERS HOME PAGE
On this episode of The Solutioneers, The girls are presenting at the National STEAM Speak challenge. They describe the latest tool
integrated into their project: A SOCIAL ALERT APP that messages the team to plan in-person meet-ups, because even the hardest working scientists need time to have fun.
And on Future Minds, winner of the Canada Wide Science Fair Islay Graham shares her project’s findings on whether beach cleanup affects local bird populations in Sauble Beach.
Now it's your turn!
Design and build a device that lifts objects using the power of wind!
Download the activity as a [PDF]
WHAT DO YOU NEED?
- Small notebook
- Drawing and writing materials (pencils, markers, etc.)
WHAT DO YOU DO?
- Understand the problem: Do a little research on the problem you want to address. How does the problem affect people? Try to find a variety of information that can help you understand all aspects of the problem.
- Define the problem: Write down a sentence to clearly state the problem you want to address. Think about who the problem affects, as well as where and why the problem is happening.
- Think of solutions to the problem: What kind of app could help address this problem? Think about the different things a Smartphone can do: knowing where people are located, scheduling, messaging, connecting to information. What would you need your app to do? What would it look like? Think of as many ideas as you can.
- Draw what the solution could look like: Review your ideas and pick one to focus on. Use the pages of your notebook as the different screens of your app. Draw the different windows and buttons people would use to browse your app.
- Try it out: Present your idea to people you know. What do they think? What suggestions do they have to make it even better?
What would you like your app to do?
What would you like your app to look like?
WHAT’S THE POINT?
When people design new things, they want to make sure that they meet people’s needs and solve people’s problems. Often they use a process called Design Thinking. That is what you did as well! Design Thinking is a process that designers and engineers use every day.
Design thinking helps designers understand all sides of a problem before creating a solution. Not all solutions work when they are tested, but that’s okay. It just means that designers need to try something else. The different steps of the process can be repeated many times and not always in the same order. Can you count the number of updates that you have seen for the apps you use?
WHAT ELSE?
Check out these cool careers that involve design thinking
- Step Inside Your STEM Career: Motion Capture Specialist (Career VR Video)
- Tegan Mierle: Product Designer (Career Profile)
Try this:
Coding an App walkthrough guide
This tutorial teaches you how to use block-coding to create an app. It will walk you through the first steps in using the coding program Scratch.
MIT App Inventor allows users to develop App on Android through an user friendly drag-and-drop mechanism.
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