MAET Makers

Design

At one point I saw a Tweet or a meme that joked about how someone should make, “something like Tinder but you and your partner swipe left and right on different restaurants to decide where to eat dinner.” We have all experienced this social struggle to agree on a place to get food for two or more people. It seemed like taking this particular problem and running with it to see what solutions learners could come up with would be interesting not only for the instructor/facilitator but for the learners as well. Tying this to Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), there are many tools and methods available, and the goal is to have learners design their own method, using programming logic, to facilitate decision making.  It could be code or a representation of their choosing as long as they can explain the programming logic and algorithm(s) behind the project.

This lesson was designed with college-level beginner Computer Science/Computer Information Systems (CS/CIS) students in mind, and would likely be best suited for an Introduction to Programming course. Object-Oriented Programming is a keystone concept for many areas of study under the CS/CIS umbrella. If we follow Salman Khan's model for Teaching for Mastery we know that it is important to set a solid foundation of understanding and build our first floor of basics before moving on to building the next levels with more complex subjects that depend on cumulative knowledge.

Since I have not yet taught, to be fair and honest, I have no experience other than that of a student to base the following statement on: This lesson could really be scaled up or down to fit in at the start or end of an Introduction to Programming course. A motivated or inspired student could do some interesting (maybe even fun!) things if they were allowed and encouraged to do so with a bit of structure, support, and guidance.

How?

There are so many different ways that a learner could interpret the instructions for this lesson. This dynamic nature of the goal of this exercise, and how it can adapt to meet the learners where they are in their understanding but still motivate them to challenge themselves by giving them the opportunity to “go wild” with an open-ended solution.

Some “What if” ideas I had: 

• What if they really made the app swipe-able so you could match choices with another person?

• What if users can create profiles?

• What if when a match is made, a list of suggestions (locations, meals, or recipes) comes up?

• What if users have dietary restrictions? (whether they be allergies, faith-based, or moral objections)

• What if you could use it to plan catering for bigger events?

• What if one of the options is closed/unavailable?

• What if it could tell you which delivery apps have the best deal for the selection?

• If they choose a version that helps them decide on a meal to cook at home, what if it brought up the recipe they wanted?

The restaurant locator feature would be a fantastic addition, and a particularly motivated learner would be able to look into how to make it happen.  A constraint to this idea might be that it finds a place, but it’s not open and maybe was not designed to check for business hours.

Prototype - Lesson Plan

Objectives, “Students Will”:

• Be given the problem to solve: find a place to get a meal with two or more people (or decide on a meal to make at home)

• Have the same basic parameters (i.e. use literal programming ideally, but the learner may also present an alternative with a caveat explained in tasks)

• Design a tool, then a method, for solving the problem

Tasks (depends on tool design):

• Pick the media or tool

• Structure the mechanics and programming logic (especially necessary if they choose a non-programming media/tool which is not digital)

• Prototype the design

• Test the design

• Have a solid report or documentation of their formulas and logic for their design

• Repeat any steps as necessary (i.e. Iterate!)

Programming an app is a simple way to demonstrate what the learner knows, so for my prototype I have made a very simple phone app that will randomly select an option from a set list for a meal option.  It also displays a photo of that option and allows the user to click on the list to see what is available.

What I enjoy most about presenting this challenge to students is that I feel that the premise of the lesson will inspire and motivate learners to independently research the mechanics of something like MIT App Inventor to leverage it to simultaneously suit their needs and successfully create something.

Prototype and Demonstration Video

References

Let’s teach for mastery—Not test scores | Sal Khan. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTRxRO5SRA