Why Computational Action?
Kids of all ages can make a real impact in the lives of others in their communities and in the world. It’s not just about learning about technology — it’s also about a framework for learning how to make a lasting impact with a project.
The materials on this site was developed by Nicole Pang, Cynthia Breazeal, and Hal Abelson at MIT (Personal Robots Group, App Inventor Group). It’s a resource free for all to use, and it is a crucial resource for MIT RAISE (Responsible A.I. for Social Empowerment and Education). The work is inspired by and extends important foundational work created by Michael Tissenbaum, Josh Sheldon, and Hal Abelson (2019).
Curriculum Blocks
How to get started: finding a real world problem
What inspires you? What is an issue in your community? Start here to find a meaningful project: we will go through brainstorming, discovering what matters to you, and understanding what affects your community.
Curriculum
Toolkit
You can access the brainstorming tool by making a copy here or print this worksheet to brainstorm on paper.
Student guide
Understanding users and communities
User research is crucial for helping you make meaningful impact. Learn all about how to gather data from real users.
Curriculum
Toolkit
Make a copy of the toolkit (go to: user research toolkit, user persona tool, community analysis tool)
Student guide
Designing a responsible solution with and for users
Dive into designing, wireframing, prototyping, iterating, and testing: a crucial iterative part of the process.
Curriculum
Toolkit
You can make a copy and use the tools online by accessing the worksheets here: impact matrix tool, designing your project tool.
Student guide
Coding, working on a team, and organizing your project
Getting things done as a team: implementation, project management, coding
When you’re working on a project with a team, things can get messy – fast. Learn how to organize, implement your tasks, and get things done together.
Curriculum
Toolkit
Work together with your team or by yourself on organizing your project and implementation process (make a copy of the teamwork tool here)
Student guide
How to make a long-lasting impact: review, research, redesign, repeat
Making your lasting impact: putting your project into the world
What do you do when you’ve made a project? How do you figure out if it works? What about next steps? The last step is one of the most important!
Curriculum
Toolkit
Make a copy of the tool for planning long-term impact to plan for the success and future of your project
Student Projects
Check out some student projects, a part of MIT Futuremakers 2021 program, that use computational action tools to make an impact in communities
More Student Projects
Novelty
This student project tackles sustainability and issues of food waste. Students William Nguyen, Emily Park, Matthew Nelson, Ria Mirchandani, and Sandali Srivastava, mentored by Arezoo Bybordi, created this project during the MIT Futuremakers program.
Finding and understanding the problem
User Research
Design and prototyping
Implementation and demo
Future plans
Mir
This student project was created by students Liora Jones, Armin Moinian, Jasmine Ershov, and Nikoly Dos Santos, mentored by Raefah Wahid.
Students created an app and chatbot to encourage fun productivity. Let’s take a look at how they went through the process of creating this project!
Finding the problem
User research
Design and prototyping
Implementation and teamwork
Future plans
AI Spy
This project for aiding with visual detection is a student project created during MIT Futuremakers 2021 by Annabella Tian, Milan Ferus-Comelo, Rhea Jethvani, and Tiffany Kuang. Additional contributors include Aaron Qi, and mentors Shoumik Majumdar and Sazida Binta Islam.
Let’s take a look at how this team came together to find this problem and create a project making impact on visual disability.
Finding the problem
User research
Design and prototyping
Implementation and teamwork
Demo
Future plans
MyBuddy
Students created an app to help kids who are autistic. This app was created by students Alyssa Tang, Sahana Sreeram, Jack Tan, Diya Jim, and Sam Lu, and mentored by Kevin Walsh.
Let’s take a look at their app and the computational action process.
Finding the problem
User research
Designing the project
Implementation and teamwork
Prototyping and testing
Demo
Future plans
Fast AI
FAST A.I. (Facial Asymmetry Stroke Test) is an A.I. project created by a team of students to address a real, impactful problem.
This project was created by: Ashmita Kumar, Ericka Maria Corral, and Joon Luther. Additional contribution by: Susan Shen, Elmurad Abbasov, and mentored by Purvesh Sharma.
Let’s take a look at how the project came together through the group’s final presentation on their project and computational action.
Finding the problem
User research
Design, prototyping, and implementation with a team
Demo
Future plans
Vividly
A team of students built Vividly, an app for mental well-being connection between parents and kids, using App Inventor. Read more about the team doing great in the 2021 Appathon here! Great job Youth of Tech team!
Project created by: Netra Ramesh, Christopher Blake, Ian Son, and Katherine Xu, mentored by Bella Baidak.
Take a look at the students’ final presentation of their work and how they followed the computational action process below.
User research
Design and prototyping
Demo
Future plans
