Unit 4 - Activity 2 Maps as Design Tools

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will learn to use maps as design tools to constrain their thinking for authoring design requirements, which can eventually be implemented using programming.

Key Terms and Concepts

DESIGN CONSTRAINTS refers to a limitations or “guide rails” on the requirements and/or operation conditions under which a design must be built and cannot violate.

DATA VISUALIZATION is a general term that describes any effort to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context. Patterns, trends and correlations that might go undetected in text-based data can be exposed and recognized easier with data visualization.

Key Takeaways:

We can use maps as a way to visualize and represent various kinds of data (not just paths and geographic information) and structure system requirements and possible actions in an organized way.

Driving Questions:

What kinds of data do regular maps help to visualize and represent?

What are other creative ways that maps can be used to visualize other data?

How do we need to organize information for it to presented in map form?

Materials and Preparation:

MATERIALS

1. Projector
2. Computer
• Alternatively: Instructors can prepare printed-out example maps and hand them out to students

PREPARATION

Instructors should identify several map design examples which visualize or present non-path/location information in a creative way to demonstrate how maps can be used as tools for computational thinking.

Example Map Design Screenshots:

IMAGE CREDIT: POSTED ON STREETSOFSALEM.COM/2012/02/14/MAPS-OF-THE-HUMAN-HEART

IMAGE CREDIT: © KATHERINE SAXON

IMAGE CREDIT: © EDISON YAN

IMAGE CREDIT: © SENSORY MAPS / © KATE MCLEAN

IMAGE CREDIT: MAPPINGPOLICEVIOLENCE.ORG

Activity Instructions

1. Maps as Design tools (15 minutes)
• Present Mazzy/map game example visuals as starting point
• Next, continue to other map visuals which present other themes/data in creative ways
  
  • Identify and label the themes and ideas in the map
  • Discuss what information is being presented and how it’s being presented
  • Critique how the map is effective (or not) at conveying themes
• After going through examples, discuss common “requirements” that all the map designs needed to address to be created
• How did the designers go from the information/idea to the visual map?
2. Students Brainstorm Map Themes (20 minutes)
• Based on the previous discussion, students will use the sticky note method to elicit themes for their own, new map designs:
  
  • Distribute sticky notes and markers to students
  • Have students silently write ideas and post their notes on the wall
• Instructors may either go over the notes aloud as a group or review/organize the notes after class, coming up with labels to cluster similar ideas into “themes.”
• These themes will be used in the next unit to design and prototype map games.