Community Pride & Engagement
Green Civics Project
Community Pride & Engagement
Lesson: Elementary School Participants- 2nd-4th grade
Goals:
- Students will learn about the importance of civic engagement
- Understanding the advantages of qr code with mobile devices in the age of COVID 19
Objectives
- Students will learn about the importance of civic engagement by using mobile devices to access information through QR Codes/Understanding civic engagement through QR Codes. (1st lesson)
- Provide examples of civic engagement carried out by youth of the same age as the student.
Materials & Resources
Samsung Tablet Or A Mobile Device
Laser Cut QR Codes
Wifi Access
Anchor FM
http://www.steamforsocialchange.org/queens-ps-156/building-community-through-mural-design/
https://www.dummies.com/business/marketing/social-media-marketing/how-to-scan-a-qr-code/
Vocabulary
Community – a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
Civic engagement – it involves “working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference.
QR code – a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.
Altruism- the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.
Warm Up Activity
The teacher/facilitator will ask the group the following questions: (The facilitator/teacher can use themselves as a model and answer all three questions to model for the students.)
- Please state your name, grade and what is the neighborhood you live in?
- How would you describe the people in your neighborhood?
- Describe something unique in your community?
Main Activity
Facilitator will teach students how to access QR Codes through mobile devices that are on display at the community garden. Facilitator will instruct students step by step on how to access a QR code with the following steps:
Define what a QR Code is:
QR code – a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.
Step By Step Instruction on how to access the QR Code
https://www.dummies.com/business/marketing/social-media-marketing/how-to-scan-a-qr-code/
- Open the QR Code reader on your phone.
- Hold your device over a QR Code so that it’s clearly visible within your smartphone’s screen.
Two things can happen when you correctly hold your smartphone over a QR Code.- The phone automatically scans the code.
- On some readers, you have to press a button to snap a picture, not unlike the button on your smartphone camera.
- If necessary, press the button
Facilitator will provide further examples of QR Code:
Figure 1. QR code that encodes information using black and white boxes
QR codes (see Figure 1 above) each have their own design of black and white boxes. QR codes are similar to barcodes (see Figure 2 below) that get scanned at the checkout line in the grocery store. While barcodes have vertical black and white stripes, QR codes have a set of black and white boxes arranged in a square.
QR codes were originally designed in Japan for tracking car parts within a factory. The design of the square allows more information to be stored in the design than in a normal barcode. The designers who created the QR code got inspiration from the board game called go (see picture below).
Figure 3. The Go board game which is popular in Japan and is known as the most popular board game in the world.
Each design is a unique code that can be read by a computer. Similar to how we can write out words using the alphabet, the QR code can write out words and symbols using the black and white boxes within their designs. When you hold up your phone’s or tablet’s camera to the QR code it automatically tries to read it, so it can give you a decoded link. The links usually take you to a website, and different QR codes can take you to different websites.
We have QR codes stationed throughout the garden that take you to different websites. Each QR code is on a piece of wood that we laser cut at the Forward Makerspace. Click the video below to see the laser cutting process.
The tool lets you create a design and tell the computer what you want etched into the wood. In this case, we uploaded images of the QR codes and also other pictures like the flower. The laser cutter can also cut pieces of wood along a line. The QR codes were etched in by the laser cutter, and then cut out so that we could put them in the garden.
Facilitator will model the activity and then give students the opportunity to identify the QR Code they are looking for by providing a legend key. The QR Codes will be placed throughout the garden so they can navigate different areas of the green space and allot for at least 5-10 participants to interact with the assigned QR Code. (QR Activity Sheet)
VOICE RECORDER STEPS
1. OPEN THE VOICE RECORDER APP. Find and open the Voice Recorder App on your home screen that looks like a microphone in a red circle
2. RECORD YOUR INTERVIEW. Once you have it open you should see a red circle in the middle of the screen, which is the record button. Press this button to start recording. You’ll see the screen look something like this…
3. SAVE YOUR INTERVIEW. When you’re ready to stop recording press the button again. As soon as you click it, you’ll see a box pop up called “Insert new file name”. Here you can change the name of the file to be saved. Put in your school name and the person’s name that you interviewed. For example, if you go to PS504 and you interviewed Brittany then you would put in PS504 – Brittany and then click OK. This will save it to the files on the tablet so we can upload them to the website later.
