Lesson 16: Project - App Presentation

Overview

At this point teams have researched a topic of personal and social importance, developed and tested both a paper prototype and a digital prototype, and iterated on the initial app to incorporate new features and bug fixes. Now is the time for them to review what they have done and pull together a coherent presentation to demonstrate their process of creation. Using the provided presentation template, teams prepare to present about their process of app development, including the problem they set out to solve, the ways in which they've incorporated feedback from testing, and their plans for the future.

Purpose

This lesson is the culmination of the last several weeks of project work. In preparing to present their work, it's important that students see this as more than just the programming element of their app - the goal of the presentation is to acknowledge the research, design, testing, and iteration that teams have gone through.

Assessment Opportunities

Use the project rubric attached to this lesson to assess student mastery of learning goals of this chapter. You may also choose to assign the post-project test through Code Studio.

Agenda

Lesson Modifications

Warm Up (5 min)

Activity 1 (40 - 50 min)

Activity 2 (10 min per team)

Wrap Up (5 min)

Extension Activities

View on Code Studio

Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Present technical information clearly to non-technical users
  • Reflect on the development of an ongoing project

Preparation

  • Determine how much time each group has to present. Typically this is 8-10 minutes per team, but remember to leave time for transitioning between teams
  • Create a copy of the presentation template slide deck for each team
  • Print one copy of the rubric for each team.

Links

Heads Up! Please make a copy of any documents you plan to share with students.

For the Teachers

For the Students

Teaching Guide

Lesson Modifications

Attention, teachers! If you are teaching virtually or in a socially-distanced classroom, please read the full lesson plan below, then click here to access the modifications.

Warm Up (5 min)

Inspecting the Exemplar

Content Corner

Communication is an often overlooked crucial skill in computer science, both internally (with other people on the team) or externally (to others in the company or even outside of the company). The students are practicing these skills in this presentation, and these skills will be transferable to many of their other classes.

Discuss: Discuss with the class what all they have completed so far. This has been a large project, and students may not fully realize how much they have accomplished so far. As the class comes up with accomplishments, ask them how they might present the fairly technical things they have done to a non-technical audience (such as potential users of their apps).

Display: Walk through the exemplar project, explaining that this is the general structure of the presentation each team will be making.

Activity 1 (40 - 50 min)

Presentation Prep

Teaching Tip

Reducing Printed Materials: The Rubric can be completed online or as a journal activity.

Distribute: Hand out the rubric and have each team make a copy of the app presentation template to build their presentation in.

Presentation Template

Most of the content of this slide deck should have already been completed in previous parts of this project. The last few slides (particularly Future Work and Reflection) will require more group thought or group work, so students should address those slides first.

Slide 1: Application name and team roster

Slide 2: A brief Introduction of the problem the app is intended to address, core requirements of the solution, how the solution meets those requirements, and the social impact of this app

Slide 3: Describe the market research that was done, including specific apps that were used as inspiration and their strengths and weaknesses in meeting user needs

Slide 4: Show images of the paper prototype and describe the state of the app during paper prototyping

Slide 5: Show images of the digital prototype and describe changes introduced in this iteration

Slide 6: Demo the app, attempting to address all major functionality. Teams may choose to focus on the most functional version of their app, or they could demonstrate functionality across multiple app versions.

Slide 7: List out the key feedback found in each round of user testing. Encourage students to focus on the feedback that most directly affected following iterations.

Slide 8: Describe what the next 3-5 changes would be if the team were to pursue an additional iteration. These changes should be driven by user feedback that the team didn't have time to address.

Teaching Tip

if students are “stuck” about what went right or wrong in the project, prompt them to think about the communication between team members, or the lack of time to complete the task. Usually these are the two major things that can be problematic on a project.

Slide 9: Reflect on the process as a whole. What went well? What didn't? What did you learn and what would you do differently?

Slide 10: Document any resources used during this project, including the apps found during market research, the source of any pictures used, and any other resources or websites used.

The rubric focuses on the specific content of these slides, but encourage teams to really make this presentation their own - this is their opportunity to "pitch" their app effectively.

Circulate: As teams work on developing their presentations, push them to write in a way that is accessible to a non-technical audience. It often helps to "play dumb" while asking them to present slides to you in order to point out where their presentation may be difficult to understand for some audiences.

Share: If time, pair teams up to practice giving their presentations. Remind teams that their goal is to keep their presentation no longer than 10 minutes.

Activity 2 (10 min per team)

Presentations

Transition: Remind each team how many minutes they have for their presentation. Demonstrate how you will be keeping time.

Teaching Tip

it is really important that you keep the class on time with the presentations not only so all of the presentations can get done, but also so the students can see the value of presentation preparation.

Prompt: Call up each team individually and allow them to present their work. Each team should allow a few seconds (30) to allow for questions from the other students.

Wrap Up (5 min)

Journal: Present students with the following journaling prompts:

  • Which presentation did you find the most interesting?
  • Which presentation did think would be the most effective at solving the problem they set out to solve?
  • For the next questions, write down the phrase “Not Yet”, “Almost” or “Got it” depending on where you feel on these topics
    • I feel comfortable researching user wants and needs. (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable with the research phase of this project. (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable with the design and low fidelity prototyping phase of a project (including the testing and iteration) (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable programming in app lab (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable with testing our app with users and making changes based on those tests. (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable putting together a technical presentation. (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)
    • I feel comfortable giving a technical presentation on my work. (Not Yet, Almost, Got it)

Send students to Code Studio to complete their reflection on their attitudes toward computer science. Although their answers are anonymous, the aggregated data will be available to you once at least five students have completed the survey.

Extension Activities

App Celebration Night

Invite parents, other members of the school, and anyone who was interviewed outside of class to come in for a celebration night. Teams can set up booths where they can present their apps and talk about the experience.

Submit to Competitions

Look into having students submit their creations into one of the many youth app competitions. National competitions such as the Verizon App Challenge and the Congressional App Challenge are available to pretty much everyone, but if you look around you may also find smaller local competetitions to participate in.

View on Code Studio
  • Reflection
  • 2
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View on Code Studio

Student Instructions

This level is an assessment or survey with multiple questions. To view this level click the "View on Code Studio" link.

Standards Alignment

View full course alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

AP - Algorithms & Programming
  • 2-AP-19 - Document programs in order to make them easier to follow, test, and debug.
CS - Computing Systems
  • 2-CS-01 - Recommend improvements to the design of computing devices, based on an analysis of how users interact with the devices.
DA - Data & Analysis
  • 2-DA-09 - Refine computational models based on the data they have generated.
IC - Impacts of Computing
  • 2-IC-20 - Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people's everyday activities and career options.
  • 2-IC-21 - Discuss issues of bias and accessibility in the design of existing technologies.
  • 2-IC-22 - Collaborate with many contributors through strategies such as crowdsourcing or surveys when creating a computational artifact.