Ten Minute Ice Breaker

[Gail]

Hi everyone,

I am going to be doing a ten minute ice breaker activity on Tuesday
for an all-girls outreach event called Design Tomorrow's World; I
really wanted to get some computer science in with all the other
engineering-focused stuff. I usually do CS Unplugged activities in
these situations, but I'm not sure ten minutes is enough. I also
heard there are LOTS of girls (100-150).

Any ideas for a quick activity? Or has anyone adapted a CS Unplugged
one for such a short time/large number of participants?

Thanks in advance! :)

Gail

[Tim]

The parity magic activity works well in this situation, and takes 5 to
10 minutes. There's a video of it (for a younger group) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voqghyZbZxo (start at 2:42)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPZOpT4DPU (where they give the
solution)
It's easily adapted for older kids (even adults). Make sure you
practice it well first. Also, you need double sided magnets (hard to
get in NZ) and a magnetic board.

Another nice one is the Stroop effect/User interface activity, which
works really well if the group isn't focussed, because everyone is
involved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iHPgk2u9_s
You can follow up as much as you want talking about stupid/frustrating
interfaces.
I've put a ppt of the Stroop stuff at:
http://csunplugged.org/human-interface-design (under "Files")
I have a collection of silly error messages which can also be fun to
show (I could clean it up and share it if you're interested). The main
point is to convey that we need people who think about people to
design interfaces.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers,
tim

[Gail Carmichael]

Thanks Tim!

I just got back from the event.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to plan for these because I had such short notice, but I'm definitely glad to have the suggestions below as I'm sure I will need them in the future.

I ended up doing an easy little ice breaker called "the line game" some of you might use one day.  Basically, you have the group arrange themselves in a line based on how well they agree with a particular statement.  This forces them to move around, and to talk to the others so they find the right spot (you can probably even bring in some sorting theory into it).  I used three statements that lead into a bit about what computer science is all about:

1. "I like playing video games."  For those who really loved them, I talked about my school's computer science games stream.  For the others, I explained that not everyone in CS is into games (basically trying to show that it's not a bunch of male, nerdy hard-core gamers).
   
2. "I like math."  I explained how algorithms are like mathematical thinking, but that you can focus more on design of interfaces and people etc if you want to.
3. "I have programmed or would like to try it." Although everyone has to learn to program in computer science, I said that it's worth giving a try since they might like it (then I plugged my upcoming mini-course they could sign up for - Computer Science and Games: Just For Girls!).

Gail

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[Tim Bell]

That’s great! Thanks for sharing this idea.

tim

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[Henderson, Peter]

Great Gail,

Hope all is well in Ottawa.

This seems like an ideal activity for introducing the concept of social networks.
Many students in this age group have probably heard about, or are members of,
one of the many social networking sites. Might be another nice like to Computing.

Pete
________________________________________
From: cs-unplugged-...@googlegroups.com [cs-unplugged-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gail Carmichael [gail.bana...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 12:54 PM
To: cs-unplugg...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [cs-unplugged-sharing] Re: Ten Minute Ice Breaker

Thanks Tim!

I just got back from the event. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to plan for these because I had such short notice, but I'm definitely glad to have the suggestions below as I'm sure I will need them in the future.

I ended up doing an easy little ice breaker called "the line game" some of you might use one day. Basically, you have the group arrange themselves in a line based on how well they agree with a particular statement. This forces them to move around, and to talk to the others so they find the right spot (you can probably even bring in some sorting theory into it). I used three statements that lead into a bit about what computer science is all about:

1. "I like playing video games." For those who really loved them, I talked about my school's computer science games stream. For the others, I explained that not everyone in CS is into games (basically trying to show that it's not a bunch of male, nerdy hard-core gamers).
2. "I like math." I explained how algorithms are like mathematical thinking, but that you can focus more on design of interfaces and people etc if you want to.
3. "I have programmed or would like to try it." Although everyone has to learn to program in computer science, I said that it's worth giving a try since they might like it (then I plugged my upcoming mini-course they could sign up for - Computer Science and Games: Just For Girls!).

Gail

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 2:38 PM, Tim <timb...@gmail.com<mailto:timb...@gmail.com>> wrote:
The parity magic activity works well in this situation, and takes 5 to
10 minutes. There's a video of it (for a younger group) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voqghyZbZxo (start at 2:42)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPZOpT4DPU (where they give the
solution)
It's easily adapted for older kids (even adults). Make sure you
practice it well first. Also, you need double sided magnets (hard to
get in NZ) and a magnetic board.

Another nice one is the Stroop effect/User interface activity, which
works really well if the group isn't focussed, because everyone is
involved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iHPgk2u9_s
You can follow up as much as you want talking about stupid/frustrating
interfaces.
I've put a ppt of the Stroop stuff at:
http://csunplugged.org/human-interface-design (under "Files")
I have a collection of silly error messages which can also be fun to
show (I could clean it up and share it if you're interested). The main
point is to convey that we need people who think about people to
design interfaces.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers,
tim

On Dec 8, 7:01 am, Gail <gail.banaszkiew...@gmail.com<mailto:gail.banaszkiew...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am going to be doing a ten minute ice breaker activity on Tuesday
> for an all-girls outreach event called Design Tomorrow's World; I
> really wanted to get some computer science in with all the other
> engineering-focused stuff. I usually do CS Unplugged activities in
> these situations, but I'm not sure ten minutes is enough. I also
> heard there are LOTS of girls (100-150).
>
> Any ideas for a quick activity? Or has anyone adapted a CS Unplugged
> one for such a short time/large number of participants?
>
> Thanks in advance! :)
>
> Gail

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