The true tale of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, an orchestra made up of children playing instruments built from recycled trash. The resources includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Students will create their own musical instruments with recyclable materials.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Tony Sarg was a puppeteer and marionette master who invented the first, larger than life, helium balloons for the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenges include: (1) Dash/Sphero: Develop a Macy’s Day Parade route using tape on the ground with a partner. Then, switch routes with another group and program the robot of your choice to navigate the parade route using code. (2) Ozobot: Develop a synchronized dance routine for both Ozobots for the stage of the Macy’s day parade using https://ozoblockly.com/editor (3) Create a moveable puppet that will be featured in the Macy’s Day Parade.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

The true, inspiring story of Beauty, the bald eagle, who was shot, rescued, and received a 3D-printed prosthetic beak. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenges: (1) Use paper and pencil to design a prosthetic body part for a human or animal. Then use tinkercad.com to create a prototype. Finally, use a 3D printer to print the prosthetic. (2) Have students research animals who use prosthetics. Then, improve the design in Tinkercad and 3D Print.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Using scrap metal and spare parts, William Kamkwamba created a windmill to harness the wind and bring electricity and running water to his Malawian village. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Develop a way to harness the wind by designing with Strawbees.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Ralph Baer’s family fled Nazi Germany for the US when he was a child. Using wartime technology, Baer thought outside the box and transformed the television into a vehicle for gaming. His invention was the birth of the first home console, the Odyssey, a precursor to the Atari gaming system. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenges: (1) Think outside the box. What’s something you use everyday, but not for its “intended” purpose? Examples: A broom to clean the snow off your car windshield, a trash bag as a sled. Now, think of a problem you might have at school, home, et al. Invent an item that would solve this problem. (2) Let’s think outside the box! Design the latest and greatest technology for kids to hit the market! Make it the *most* fun anyone has ever had. You may NOT use anything on the market - any technology currently on the market is off limits. Use your imagination, do not put limitations on it, and be as creative as you can. (3) Use household items to create a prototype of your new invention.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Students learn about various types of cybercrimes and the cybersecurity measures that can help prevent them. Then students perform a Rapid Research project investigating a particular cybercrime event with a particular focus on the data that was lost or stolen and the concerns that arise as a result. The Rapid Research activity features vocabulary, concepts, and skills that should help prepare them for the AP Explore PT, and also serves as a capstone for the sequence of lessons on encryption and security.

This lesson attempts to walk students through the iterative development process of building an app (basically) from scratch that involves the use of `if` statements. Following an imaginary conversation between two characters - Alexis and Michael - students follow the problem solving and program design decisions they make for each step of constructing the app. Along the way they decide when and how to break things down into functions, and of course discuss the logic necessary to make a simple game.

The last step - writing code that executes an end-of-game condition - students must do on their own. How they decide to use `if` statements to end the game will require some creativity. The suggested condition - first to score 10 points - is subtly tricky and can be written many different ways.

At the conclusion of the lesson there are three practice Create PT-style questions as well as resources explaining the connection between this lesson and the actual Create PT. Depending on how you use these materials they can easily add an additional day to this lesson.

This lesson gets into the basic mechanics of working with variables in programs. The lesson shows students how to create and assign values to variables and navigates through a series of common misconceptions about variables and how they work. Along the way, the lesson tries to build up the student’s mental model of how computers and programs work, which is essential for being able to reason about programs.

Now that students have had the chance to see and evaluate various data visualizations, they will learn to make visualizations of their own. This lesson teaches students how to build visualizations from provided datasets. The levels in Code Studio provide a detailed walkthrough of how to use Google Sheets to create several different kinds of charts. While this lesson focuses on the Google Sheets tool, other tools may be substituted at the teacher’s discretion, and MS Excel support is coming soon to the lesson.

The main activity teaches students to build different chart types (scatter, line, and bar charts) from a single data set. It should be emphasized to students that the purpose of this lesson is to explore and experiment with creating different types of visualizations, not to build the perfect chart. Students will have a chance to create and customize their own charts. At the end of class, students compare their custom visualizations with those of their classmates.

Two blobs of clay go on an enjoyable adventure as they transform themselves into fun shapes and new things throughout their escapade. What will they be by the end of the book? The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Design a stop-motion video that morphs an item of your choice into another item. Before you begin, sketch out the process you’ll take to transform your item.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

It’s easy to take today’s ubiquitous colored crayons for granted, but they were the result of one individual’s innovation. Biebow introduces Edwin Binney—a mustachioed man and head of a carbon black factory—who wished to make color-pigmented wax crayons that reflected the world outside. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Think about the school/community/world in which you live and identify a problem that could be solved with a new invention.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Interactive video showing how to use procedures to create a natural walking motion for bipedal objects in Alice.

Exploring Computer Science is a yearlong course developed around a framework of both computer science content and computational practice. Assignments and instruction are contextualized to be socially relevant and meaningful for diverse students. Units utilize a variety of tools/platforms and culminate with final projects around Human-Computer Interaction, Problem Solving, Web Design (HTML, CSS), Programming (Scratch, Edware), Computing & Data Analysis, and Robotics. ECS is recognized nationally as a preparatory course for AP Computer Science Principles. Watch this video and view this fact sheet for more information.

After the Great Depression struck, Ford especially wanted to support ailing farmers. For two years, Ford and his team researched ways to use farmers’ crops in his Ford Motor Company. They discovered that the soybean was the perfect answer. Soon, Ford’s cars contained many soybean plastic parts, and Ford incorporated soybeans into every part of his life. He ate soybeans, he wore clothes made of soybean fabric, and he wanted to drive soybeans, too. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Think about the people in your community and the challenges they face. List three challenges that affect their daily life. Consider something you use every day and brainstorm how it could be repurposed or modified to address this problem.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Meet savvy scientist and inventor Hedy Lamarr, also known for her career as a glamorous international movie star. Dubbed "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World," Hedy actually preferred spending time creating inventions in her workshop to strutting down the red carpet. Hedy co-invented the technology known as frequency hopping, which turned out to be one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century! Today's cell phone, computers, and other electronic devices would be more vulnerable to hacking without the groundbreaking system discovered by a world-famous actress and gifted inventor. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Create small groups. Pass out one of the challenges listed in the lesson plan/book card to each group for them to come up with an invention that will solve the problem at hand.

Frances Gabe detested housework, so she invented a contraption to free herself from this tedious task forever: a self-cleaning house! Gabe's wacky, wonderful home included almost 70 new patented inventions, from a soap-spraying sprinkler in the ceiling to a kitchen cabinet that washed, dried, and stored dishes all in one place. Though Gabe's invention didn't catch on, her determination and clever thinking remind us that we don't have to accept the world as it is; we can improve it using our minds and our own two hands. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Frances Gabe created over 70 inventions because she hated cleaning. What is one thing you hate doing for chores? Develop an invention to have it clean itself.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Amy Guglielmo, Jacqueline Tourville, and Giselle Potter tell the story of autism advocate Dr. Temple Grandin’s childhood and her quest to experience the sensation of a hug. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Students will work to develop an assistive technology solution for people with autism. Alternatively, students may develop assistive technology solutions for students with differing abilities. Students are encouraged to work with peers in a local special education classroom to combine their love of technology and engineering to help positively influence their peers’ lives.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Developed by the NYCDOE CS education team, the Introduction to Computational Media is a yearlong (108 hours) creative computing course for high schools using the open source Javascript library p5.js. By understanding how code can be a medium for creative expression, students will learn the fundamentals of computer science while designing and prototyping interactive projects that run on a browser. Additionally, students will learn how HTML/CSS elements can interact with p5.js to fully take advantage of developing content for a browser. This course has been implemented in NYC schools via CS4All’s Software Engineering Program (SEP), revised by classroom teachers with guidance from the Processing Foundation, and aligns with the CS4All Blueprint for CS education that emphasizes a hands-on CS approach called creative computing. Watch this video and view this fact sheet for more information.

Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies — and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Your community has many different areas to explore - it might be a park, a grocery store, a forest, or an alley. For some people, it might be difficult to explore these areas because they may have differing abilities. Select one area in your community, and come up with a plan to build a way for it to be more accessible to everyone.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.