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Coding for gender equalityEstimated duration: 1 hour/2 sessions for online classAge level: Primary school studentsLearning objectives, skills and competencies:In this activity students will find out that computers operate in binary, and that we are able to store letters and words through character encoding, which is an essential part of understanding digital evidence. The basic principles of coding teach metacognition, problem-solving, and abstract thinking.The students will learn about ASCII code (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) and put it in practice, by trying to discover some names of well-known women scientists. They will also use Maths, reviewing their adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing skills by painting pixel art worksheets, with pixelated portraits of the same women scientists. These will increase students’ attention and will help students learn coding through more familiar media, making the subject less intimidating and more interactive and inclusive.They will find out more information about women in Science, work in pairs/groups and search the Internet for information, then present their work in front of the class. The activity helps develop their collaborative skills, while having a lot of fun.Activities and roles:Students will be involved in some unplugged (de)coding activities through collaborative tasks that familiarize them with ASCII code and pixel art – coding by colour – and make connections with language, maths and humanities. Both boys and girls will find out more about women scientists and how these brilliant, dedicated and determined women have pursued science over the years. This activity will hopefully increase gender equality and empower girls in pursuing STEM careers. The teacher provides instructions, monitors the class and provides assistance when necessary. For online class, parents can take part, helping students by printing the worksheets, or even learning together about coding.What you will need:For the classroom:a video projector (or a smart board)printed worksheets of names and portraits of women scientists. For students:personal devices/a computer connected to the Internet;coloured pencils/crayons or markers.Two of the activities will be done without the use of technology (unplugged), while the third activity will require surfing the Web, but that can be done using any device, so you do not have to have a lot of equipment to perform the lesson.For online class:a collaborative space with uploaded worksheets;a collaborative space for final presentations;a videoconference space for the class.The (de)coding activities can be done online if the worksheets are interactive. If they are printable, the activities can be done at home with the help of students’ parents. Learning space:School classroom orOnline asynchronous/synchronous collaborative spacesActivity description:Teacher will first create and print worksheets with names written in ASCII code and also pixelated portraits of well-known women scientists like Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace or Jane Goodall, or other women in science. Teachers are also able to modify this activity to teach about female scientists in their own country. The pixelated portraits can be created by using an online pixel art tool, for example , / or and also Paint or tables in Word or Excel.The steps to follow are:Pixelate the portrait using a chosen online tool for that.Insert the picture into a grid you simply drew over it on a sheet of paper or create one inside Paint, Word or Excel programs.Create the colour code for your portrait. The numbers can be used as they are, or as a result of a Maths calculation that you need to revise. Using a blank grid transfer the portrait into it pixel by pixel, according to the colour code.If you insert Maths calculations inside pixels, you will probably need a landscape setup or an A3 page for your portrait.The portrait worksheet will contain the coded grid and the colour code.Example worksheet - ADA LOVELACE. In this example, the portrait worksheet is made in Word, and the pixels are simply numbered. For younger students, another idea is to use worksheets with clues about the science field the woman scientist worked in, for example the Radioactivity / Danger sign for Marie Curie or monkey pixel art for Jane Goodall.For example, for a class of 20 students, a teacher can choose five women scientists and print worksheets for names and portraits for each one. They will be numbered, and students can be divided into groups using any game or method that suits the class. Each group will receive the two worksheets – name and portrait – for the same woman scientist. Students will work collaboratively, and their work outcomes will be names and faces of women scientists the letters will be revealed one by one using ASCII code. For the faces, only after finding the right answer to the mathematical calculation inside each pixel can they find the colour of the pixel and discover the portrait pixel by pixel. At the end of the activity the teams will have to search the Internet for info about the women scientist and tell the class about her. The presentations will need to cover certain information, like nationality, place of birth, science field and main achievements, but they can be also more detailed. This can also be given as an individual task.There can be also badges at the end, given to all teams who successfully finish the task.Guidelines for online/blended classes.The worksheets will be uploaded on collaborative classroom spaces, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom or Google Drive, ready to be downloaded by students. The synchronous meeting can take place on Teams, Meet, Zoom or another online meeting space. The worksheets can be numbered and access will be given randomly to students by using an online tool like . Students with the same number will work together.The coding part, in pairs or larger groups, can be accommodated in break rooms, if the tool used allows it. The final presentation can be assigned as homework, with students using online collaborative tools to create it, or they can work individually and share their work on collaborative spaces created by the teacher. In that case, the scenario will be 2 hours long, one for the actual coding activity, the other for the students’ synchronous presentations. Name of author: Cristina Nicol?i?? ................
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