Design a prototype for your community based on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development goals
When: TechWeek 2020, 27 July – 2 August
Who: School aged children and their teachers
Where: At school and home across Aotearoa
Submit now!
What is She Can Code?
She Can Code is an annual event hosted by Digital Future Aotearoa to promote and celebrate young girls and women coding in NZ. Every year we aim to highlight the achievements of girls, women and non-binary coders and to provide an opportunity for them to create and make using digital technology.
2020 marks the 3rd instalment of the event and this time we are implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to address social needs like access to education, clean water, medicine and food, with a focus on climate action and environmental protection. Our goal is to create an accessible hackathon type event to get our youth thinking about ways they can use Digital Technology and design processes to solve the very real problems faced by their communities, while using the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a guide.
How to take part in 2020
Learn about prototyping. A common, collaborative design technique used by programmers and developers trying to solve a problem with a product or an app. Over five days, you will find out about the UN Sustainable Development Goals. You will then come up with an idea (based on the Sustainable Development Goals) to solve a problem faced by your community and prototype a solution to the problem.
The project is aimed at youth from 9 years up, but if you are under nine you can still take part with help from a guardian or teacher. The focus is on critical thinking, problem solving, sustainability and FUN.
Boys are not excluded and are invited to collaborate. However all girls and non-binary youth across Aotearoa are encouraged to take the lead, as the goal of She Can Code is to provide a space to uplift and amplify their creative minds and voices.
This year’s She Can Code Event will be fun, creative and can be completed from home or school. The project only needs what you have around the home or classroom. Repurpose old junk and get creative when making your prototype! That Weetbix box might become an air filter, or those empty egg cartons could become a communication device!
To get an idea about how the project might look have a browse through some of the awesome projects created and submitted earlier this year as part of our initiative to keep kids engaged and learning from home while in lockdown!
You will see some submissions used technology like scratch and a website to display their protoypes, while others used code to build their products. You can then share your idea with us by submitting in the form of a video, photo, report or infographic or a combination of all of the above!
Cover many curriculum areas with this free, classroom ready educational resource designed by Digital Future Aotearoa. Aimed at years 5–9, but we encourage engagement across all year groups, She Can Code 2020 challenges your students and exposes them to the concept of prototyping, a design technique used by organisations across the globe, working to make the world a better place through technology.
We want to make sure the project is accessible to all, thus the emphasis is on the use and application of various computer science concepts and design processes to create and solve, rather than physical devices or the implementation of code to create a product.
For a breakdown of key learning areas in the She Can Code 2020 project and the application to the New Zealand Curriculum please click here.
The Project Guide
You can take part in She Can Code as an individual or a team. If you enter as a team have some fun choosing a great team name!
The project runs over five days with each day dedicated to a different stage of the prototyping process:
The project guide is available in three formats: Google Slides, PDF and Micorsoft Word. The content is exactly the same across the three formats, please choose whichever works best for you!
Day ONE: EMPATHISE
Monday 27 July
Learn about the UN’s Sustainable Development goals and think about which ones are most important to you and your community. This will help you come up with your idea. DOWNLOAD DAY ONE – Google Slides, PDF, MSWord
Day TWO: DEFINE
Tuesday 28 July
Pick one of the 17 goals for your project – from affordable and clean energy, to zero hunger – and come up with an idea based on that goal that helps your community! DOWNLOAD DAY TWO – Google Slides, PDF, MSWord
Day THREE: IDEATE
Wednesday 29 July
Develop your idea by looking at the problem and possible solutions. By the end of this week you’ll be able to talk to others about your idea. You’ll get feedback to help improve your idea. DOWNLOAD DAY THREE – Google Slides, PDF, MS Word
Day FOUR: PROTOTYPE
Thursday 30 July
Create a prototype that shows your solution to the idea. DOWNLOAD DAY FOUR – Google Slides, PDF, MS Word
Day FIVE: TEST & SUBMIT
Friday 31 July - SUnday 2 August
Share your idea with the world! Create a video, photo, report or infographic about your idea and submit by 5pm Sunday 2 August. DOWNLOAD DAY FIVE – Google Slides, PDF, MS Word
Submission form
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