Hack Day

Welcome to Hack Day! Meet your mentor and your teammates! Share: –What’s your name? –What school do you go to (or company do you work for)? –What’s your favorite app? –Why are you excited about the Technovation Challenge?

Technovation Mission and Vision Technovation strives to promote women in technology by giving girls the confidence and skills they need to succeed in computer science and entrepreneurship. Our goal is to empower every girl to see themselves not just as users of technology--- but as inventors, designers, builders, and entrepreneurs.

Technovation (video)

Beginner-level app building language Completely web-based tool, requires an internet connection to use Must be signed into your Gmail account first Two major parts: Designer and Blocks Editor App Inventor

App Inventor: Designer Design the user interface of the app!

App Inventor: Blocks Editor Program the functionality of the app - how it works!

App Inventor: Emulator In case you don’t have a real phone to test with you can use the emulator. It simulates a phone on your computer.

–Click on Settings App –Select Wireless & networks –Select Wi-Fi settings –Select Wi-Fi. A green check will appear by it. –Select Wi-Fi settings. Choose the network and password (if there is one) written on the board. Set-up Wireless

–Click on the Settings App –Select Applications. This will open a new page. –Select "Unknown sources". A green check will appear by it. –Select Development. This will open a new page. –Select "USB debugging". A green check will appear. –Select "Stay awake". A green check will appear. –Hit back button until back at Settings screen. Phone Settings for Development

Activity: CrystalBall Hack In this tutorial, you’ll create an app that works like a crystal ball. Users think of a question such as “Will I win my soccer game?” and then tap the screen to see the crystal ball’s response. We’ll walk through it together.

CrystalBall: Getting Started To begin, go to gmail.com and sign into your account Create a Gmail account if you don’t have one Open up a new tab in your browser, go to and click “invent” Under My Projects, click “New” and name your project CrystalBall

Activity: CrystalBall Hack In the Designer Add a label with the text “What do you want to know?” Add a label with the text “Shake the crystal ball and all will be revealed” Put the 2 labels in a vertical screen arrangement Add a button named “FortuneText” and set the background to be the Crystal Ball Image Set the text of the button to be “”. Add a label under the the button that says “Tap to Clear..” Add an accelerometer sensor

Activity: CrystalBall Hack In the Blocks Editor Get the Shaking Event Handler for the Accelerometer. Put in a Set Fortune.Text block in the event handler. Connect a call pick random item from the list to the Set Fortune.Text block Connect a make a list block to the list value in the pick random item block. Add the text “Yes”, “No”, “Maybe”, and “time will tell” to the list as items

Activity: CrystalBall Hack In the Blocks Editor Find the FortuneText clicked event handler. Set the FortuneText.Text to a blank text box.

Activity: CrystalBall Hack On the phone Package for the phone Test it!

Most fun part of app-building! It’s good to always be thinking how you can make things better Customizing your app helps you learn the tools better and prepare to make an app on your own Customizing Your App

Activity: CrystalBall Hack How can we customize this app? Change the look –Background picture Add a sound Add more answers Other ideas?

Read the tutorial questions on your worksheet Discuss the answers in your group Turn in to your teacher Be prepared to share with the group Discussion

An event is an action that occurs outside the program Usually from the User! Examples: –Key presses –Screen Touches Event-driven Programming

Just like with a computer, program events happen in your life everyday Examples –Phone rings –Your friend tosses a ball at you Events in Real Life

What do you do when an event happens? –Phone rings Answer the phone! –Your friend tosses a ball at you Catch the ball! These are called Event Handlers –Notice they can be different for each event Events in Real Life

In CrystalBall, what was our event? –Phone was shaken What did our event handler do? –Displayed an answer from the list! Event-driven Programming

A named container that holds a value The value can change Your wallet –Sometimes might have $5 –Other times it might have $20 Hair Color –Sally’s is Brown –Michael’s is … Variables

In this tutorial, you create an app that allows the user to draw lines and dots of various colors on the screen. PaintPotHack

Driver – hands on keyboard & mouse Navigator – reads instructions and tells driver what to do Switch every 5-10 minutes Two brains are better than one Pair Programming

Pair Programming in Practice

If you have problems Watch the YouTube videos (Part 1 & 2) Post questions to the P2PU forum Resources

How can we customize the app? –Add more color buttons –Have a random color button –Use camera to add background image –Others? PaintPotHack

Camera Demo

Read the tutorial questions on your worksheet Discuss the answers in your group Turn in worksheet to your teacher Be prepared to share your answers with the group Discussion

In this app you will create a game that has a mole that jumps randomly around the screen every half second. If the user successfully touches the mole, then the score increases by one point. MoleMash Hack

Resources If you have problems Watch the YouTube videos (Part 1, 2 & 3) Post question P2PU forum

A named sequence of steps Why is it useful to make procedures? –Code Reuse, less coding –Only need to change code in one place if there are bugs or updates Procedure

What do you do when brushing your teeth? –Put toothpaste on brush, add water, brush, spit, rinse your brush It’s actually several steps represented by “brushing your teeth” But your mom only needs to say “brush your teeth” and you know what she means Procedures in Real Life

What procedures did we use in MoleMash? What did they do? –MoveMole Update the position of the mole –UpdateScore Print the new score Procedures in MoleMash

What are some ways you have found that work well to find errors in your app? –Proper Naming –Test frequently –Reread your code –Add Comments –Deactivate code that’s not in use –Use the Watch feature to see variables –Do It allows you to test procedures Debugging

How can we customize it? –Add a second mole –Speed up the mole –Change the look Change the mole Change the background –Add a sound –Others? MoleMash Hack

Read the tutorial questions on your worksheet Discuss the answers in your group Turn in to your teacher Be prepared to share Discussion

Work alone or in pairs to design and develop your own application Try to use the tools you’ve learned – Events – Variables – Lists – Procedures – Camera – Buttons Activity: Create Your Own App – Labels – Accelerometer – ImageSprites – Timer – Sound

Have another pair/person test your app – Do they like it? – Is it easy to use? – Do they have suggestions for improvement? Describe your app to your group Continue to work on your app at home Show your friends & family! Activity: Create Your Own App

Read the tutorial questions on your worksheet Discuss the answers in your group Turn in to your teacher Be prepared to share your answers with the group Discussion

In this tutorial, you’ll create an app that autoresponds to text messages while the user is driving. The user also has the option to have the app speak the message that was received. Activity: No Text While Driving Hack

Resources If you have problems Watch the YouTube videos (Part 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5) Post questions to P2PU forum

How can we customize this app? –Custom responses for different phone numbers –Others? Activity: No Text While Driving Hack

Read the tutorial questions on your worksheet Discuss the answers in your group Turn in to your teacher Be prepared to share your answers with the group Discussion

Think-Pair-Share –Share 2 things you learned with a partner –Be prepared to share with the group Get the contact info for your team and set up your first meeting for January! Wrap Up

Before you go! Tweet #technovation Join our Facebook community: Technovation Challenge