Week 12: Use Your Powers for Good!
Unit: Computers and Society (Weeks 12-13)
What’s in Store This Week?
You’ve learned so many amazing coding superpowers. Now it’s time to see how you can use them to help people and change the world! This week, we’ll explore all the cool jobs that use technology, from artists and doctors to scientists and game designers. Then, you’ll become an inventor, using your programming skills to brainstorm a simple app that could solve a real problem in our community. Get ready to see how the skills you’re learning can make a real difference!
What You’ll Be Able to Do!
By the end of this week, you’ll be able to:
- Name different jobs that use technology to help people.
- Explain how programming can have a positive impact on the world.
- Connect your own interests to a future career in tech.
- Brainstorm and plan a simple app that could help someone in our community.
Lessons This Week
Lesson 12.1: Technology All Around Us: A Career Day!
Get Ready To: Explore the future! We’ll discover how all sorts of community helpers—like doctors, firefighters, and teachers—use technology in their jobs. You might even get to talk to a real tech professional!
Lesson 12.2: Apps for Good: A Design Workshop
Get Ready To: Become a problem-solver! You’ll put on your inventor hat and design a simple app that could help make our school or neighborhood a better place.
How We’ll See Our Skills Grow
- Career Connections: We’ll see how you connect your own passions to the cool tech careers we learn about.
- Problem-Solving Power: Your “App for Good” design will show how you can use empathy and design thinking to come up with helpful ideas.
- Big Ideas: This week is all about your amazing ideas! We’ll be looking for creativity and a passion for helping others.
Connecting to the Real World
- Social Studies: You’ll be thinking like a responsible citizen about how to improve your community.
- Career Day: This is your first step into thinking about what you might want to be when you grow up, and how tech can be a part of it!
- Ethics: We’ll talk about the responsibility we have as creators to use our tech powers for good.
Your Inventor’s Toolkit
- Resources and videos about cool careers in technology
- A special guest (in person or on video) who works in tech!
- Worksheets to help you brainstorm community problems and design your “App for Good”
Assessment Highlights
- Formative: Understanding of technology careers, quality of empathy and user research
- Performance: Professional interview engagement and solution presentation
- Portfolio: Career exploration notes and social impact project prototypes
Cross-Curricular Connections
- Social Studies: Community helpers, civic responsibility, and social awareness
- Career Education: Technology career exploration and skill development
- Ethics: Responsibility and positive use of technology
- Language Arts: Interview skills and professional communication
Career Exploration Focus
- Diversity of technology-related careers and pathways
- Skills and education requirements for different positions
- Entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities
- Connection between personal interests and career possibilities
Social Impact and Responsibility
- Understanding technology’s role in helping communities
- Empathy and user-centered design principles
- Social responsibility in technology creation
- Positive applications of programming skills
Materials Needed
- Career and technology connection resources
- Video chat setup for virtual professional interviews
- Community problem identification templates
- User persona and empathy interview materials
- Design thinking and wireframing supplies
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