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IT: Building Apps for Needs Pathways to Prosperity Network

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BUILDING APPS FOR NEEDS

Essential Question: What Is a Need?

Learning Targets:

Students will:

Identify a design problem whose solution could benefit people.

Use a variety of media to develop and deepen understanding of a topic or idea.

Differentiate between needs and wants.

Relate the design of an app to the need it addresses.

Discuss important issues with peers.

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, young programmers will explore the distinction between wants and needs. The

lesson begins with looking at what is a need and completing another MIT App Inventor tutorial.

YPs then explore needs versus wants in a game simulation. This activity leads into a discussion

about human needs extending beyond food, water, shelter, air, and companionship. YPs

explore their needs and their relative importance by creating personal pie charts.


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Lesson Agenda Opening

What Are Needs? (15 min)

Work Time Personal Pie Chart (20 min)

MIT App Inventor Tutorial (30 min)

Closure Exit Reflection (5 min)

Materials

Young Professional student packet

Projector and speakers

MIT App Inventor Tutorial: No Texting While Driving

Needs vs. Wants game instructions (for teacher reference)

Needs vs. Wants Worksheets 1 and 2 (one set per group)

Blank paper (one per student)

Markers or colored pencils

Personal pie chart example (to project)

Personal pie chart question strips (one set per group and folded)

Small container

FACILITATION NOTES

Personal Pie Chart. Create your own personal pie chart example to project. It should illustrate

the most important needs in your life, other than the universal basics (water, food, air, shelter).

Setup. This lesson begins with a second tutorial from MIT App Inventor, No Texting While

Driving. The text and video of the instructions can be found at

http://ai2.appinventor.org/content/ai2apps/simpleApps/noTexting. Ensure this website is

bookmarked on each computer station.

MIT App Inventor. Explore the MIT App Inventor website and complete the No Texting While

Driving tutorial on your own in order to best support students during work time.

Differentiation. The No Texting While Driving App Tutorial best fits the class objective of

developing apps that address needs, but it can be challenging. You may need to have students

complete a different tutorial based on the learning needs of your class. Consider having

struggling students complete the Android Mash tutorial. Students who are not yet ready for the

No Texting tutorial but find Android Mash too easy can work on the PaintPot tutorial. Complete


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each of these tutorials on your own in advance to determine which are best for your students

and how you can scaffold and model to best support the class.

Extension. For students with more experience or a high interest in coding, encourage them to

work through more advanced MIT App Inventor Tutorials at:

http://ai2.appinventor.org/content/ai2apps/intermediateApps.

IN ADVANCE

Prepare your personal pie chart.

This lesson begins with a second tutorial from App Inventor: No Texting While Driving.

Bookmark the website on all computer stations:

http://ai2.appinventor.org/content/ai2apps/simpleApps/noTexting.

Review the <Popcorn Share> protocol included in the opening of this lesson.

Prepare the equipment needed to project the personal pie chart example.

Vocabulary

Content Tier II

canvas, user interface, arrangement, touch

drag, variables

justify, entrepreneur, traditional, research

Opening (15 min)

What Are Needs? Our first question as app designers is, “What do people need?” According to Entrepreneur

Magazine, the most common reason why apps fail is because the creators made incorrect

guesses about their potential audience’s needs. Developers sometimes build apps based on a

gut feeling about what people want and need; often, these gut feelings are not as reliable as

traditional market research. To build successful apps, we need to identify people’s needs

accurately before we imagine an app that could satisfy one of these needs. If we do not know

that potential customers would be interested in our app, we should not waste our time and

money to create something that might never sell.

1. Ask students: If you could only select 4 items to get you through your middle school day,

what would they be?

http://ai2.appinventor.org/content/ai2apps/intermediateApps


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Encourage the YPs

to justify their

thinking when

making selections.

Ask: What

evidence do you

have to support

your choice? How

can you justify this

as necessary to

living and being

healthy?

2. Invite students to <Popcorn Share> their answers. List them on the board.

3. Post or project the <What Are Needs? Anchor Chart>. This chart should have a

column for listing wants and a column for listing needs.

4. Ask students to select items from the list generated by the popcorn share and add them

to either the needs or wants categories. If a disagreement arises, encourage

students to explain their reasoning. For example, a student might say that video

games are a need because entertainment and intellectual stimulation are

important for staying happy. Another student might provide the counterargument

that there are many ways to be entertained, aside from video games, and

therefore the need is “entertainment” and not specifically video games.

Needs Vs. Wants Game

1. Invite students to form groups of 3-4.

2. Follow steps 2-7 in the <Needs and Wants Game> (open source).

3. After the game, ask each group to create a definition of needs and then to share

their definitions with the class. Use equity sticks to solicit responses from groups.

4. Ask students: What is the difference between a need and a want?

5. Invite volunteers to answer the question. Listen for: Needs are required for supporting

life, wants are things that make no difference in continuing to live and be healthy. Needs

can be extended to things like transportation because we need to work to earn money so

we can buy food, shelter, etc., in order to live. Students may also make the case that, to

be a healthy human, we need entertainment and social connection.

6. Ask students: Looking at our <What Are Needs? Anchor Chart>, would you re-

categorize anything on the lists as a need or want?”

Work Time

Personal Pie Chart (20 min) Beyond the basic physical requirements of air, water, food, and shelter, every person would

identify different needs. Let’s take a little time to explore our different needs and, at the same

time, get to know each other more.

1. Distribute blank paper and colored pencils or markers.

2. Tell students that they are going to create a pie chart to show the most important needs

in their lives, other than the universal basics of air, water, food, and shelter.

3. Invite students to draw a large circle on their paper.

In a popcorn

share, the

instructor

poses a

question with

many possible

answers.

When the

instructor calls

"Popcorn!",

students may

call out to offer

answers,

taking care not

to talk over

one another.

The instructor

or a volunteer

records the

answers.


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4. Project the <Personal Pie Chart Example> that you created in advance.

5. Tell students that they are to first list their most important needs.

6. Explain that they then divide up the circle to represent their own needs and their

importance. They may color the pie chart.

7. Explain that students should vary the size of the pie chart’s wedges according to the

item’s importance; for one student, family time might be a large wedge and exercise very

small, whereas another student might include the same two wedges but with exercise

larger than family time. Other students might have completely different wedges

altogether.

Debrief Discussion

1. When students complete their pie charts, invite them to form groups of 3-4 to share their

charts.

2. Provide <Personal Pie Chart Question Strips>, folded up and placed in a small

container.

3. Explain that each student will choose a folded question at random from the container

and answer it in no more than three sentences, and then the group can discuss the

question together. They should continue with each group member choosing a question,

answering it, and discussing it until all the question strips are used.

4. When the share out is finished, ask students: What were some of the similarities and

differences between the pie charts in your small group?

5. Use equity sticks to solicit responses. Answers will vary.

6. Distribute the <Quick Write> to students.

7. Provide time for them to answer the question.

8. Collect the student work to review and assess their understanding of needs and how

apps can meet needs.

MIT App Inventor Tutorial (30 min)

Many computer programming professionals have one piece of advice they give to people first

learning to code: go slow and start small. Learning to code is also often compared to learning a

new language. The tutorials we are going to work through in our lab sessions should provide

you with coding “words” to add to your expanding vocabulary of coding language.

1. Invite students to sit at a computer and open the first MIT App Inventor tutorial called the

<No Texting While Driving App>. This app addresses the need of preventing drivers

from becoming distracted by texts while driving.

2. Project the MIT App Inventor <No Texting While Driving App> tutorial and play the

introductory video.

As an extension,

turn this into a

math-rich

activity by

asking students

to calculate the

various

percentages of

the wedges in

their personal

pie charts.


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3. Debrief as a whole class. Ask: What is the purpose of the No Texting While Driving

app? What need does it address?

4. Model completing the first steps with the class. When the second tutorial video

plays, have the YPs pause with you at intervals to complete the tasks outlined in the

video on Appinventor.org.

5. Have students record new terms in their <No Texting While Driving Note Catcher>

as they pause the video to complete steps.

o Provide time for students to work through the rest of the steps independently.

o Circulate and assist students as needed. Encourage students to use the <Ask

Three Before Me> protocol. Explain to students that they should use three

resources other than the teacher in an effort to solve their problem. Resources can

include other students, website resources, video resources, and message board

resources on the MIT App Inventor site.

Debrief

1. At the conclusion of the timeframe, ask students: What new terms and concepts did

you learn?

2. Invite volunteers to share the terms and concepts and their definitions or

descriptions.

3. Listen for: Canvas, user interface, arrangement, touch, drag, variables.

4. Clarify terms and concepts, as needed.

Closure (5 min)

Exit Reflection

1. Gather the YPs’ attention for the <Exit Reflection>.

o Ask: What needs and wants surprised you? How do you think you can use needs to

help you think about an app to create?

2. Provide a few minutes for students to pair-share their reflections and ideas.

3. Use equity sticks to solicit responses for whole-group discussion.

Encourage a

growth mindset

as the YPs add

to their coding

knowledge. This

next tutorial is

significantly

more difficult

than the “I Have

a Dream”

tutorial.

Normalize

struggle and

emphasize that

learning how to

build an app is

like learning a

new language,

where we must

put in time and

effort before

becoming fluent.


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Name:

Date:

BUILDING APPS FOR NEEDS: What Is a Need?

Today’s Learning Objectives:

I can:

Identify a design problem whose solution could benefit people.

Use a variety of media to develop and deepen understanding of a topic or idea.

Differentiate between needs and wants.

Discuss important issues with peers.

In this lesson, I will explore the distinction between wants and needs. The lesson begins with

looking at what is a need and completing another MIT App Inventor tutorial. I will then explore

needs versus wants in a game simulation. This activity leads into a discussion about human

needs extending beyond food, water, shelter, air, and companionship. I will explore my needs

and their relative importance by creating a personal pie chart.

Today’s Activities:

Needs vs. Wants Game

Personal Pie Chart

MIT App Inventor Tutorial

Exit Ticket


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Quick Write

What need do you have that an app could meet? Describe the app.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

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No Texting While Driving Note Catcher

New Term Definition


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Exit Ticket

Directions. Reflect on today’s lesson. Answer:

o What needs and wants surprised you?

o How do you think you can use needs to help you think about an app to create?


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Facilitator Documents:

What are Needs? Anchor Chart

Wants Needs


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Personal Pie Chart Question Strips

What items do your group’s pie charts have in common? Why do you think these commonalities

exist?

How can you explain the differences between the charts? Why do your group members have

some needs in common and not others?

Why are there differences between charts? What does this say about your needs?

Would you change anything on your own pie chart, now that you have compared it to those of

your group members?

What are some needs that were not mentioned in your group’s charts, but might be very

important for a student with different abilities or access to resources? For instance, a

nearsighted student might have listed her glasses.