Improved Blocks and Sight Seeing

Improved Blocks

Addressing the issues in my last blog post about CSnap Unplugged I have made a new and improved set of blocks. These are much larger and easier to handle, no more slippery little things getting blown away by fans. These blocks will be used with dry erase markers as shown, which wipe off with just the swipe of a finger. 

Sculpture Park

On KNUST campus is a beautiful sculpture park with sculptures made by the University's students. Many of these sculptures were very old!

Botanical Gardens

Walking through the Botanical Gardens in Kumasi was a treat. The sheer size of what grows here is incredible! What you won't be able to see in my photos is the incredible sound of birds, insects, and African music that accompanied the sight seeing.

CSnap Unplugged

What is CSnap Unplugged?

One challenge we face with implementing Adinkra Computing into Ghanaian school's curriculum is the lack of computers; maybe the school has no computers at all or maybe they have five computers for 500 students. To overcome this challenge the question must be asked, how do we teach computer programming without computers? Our answer to this is CSnap Unplugged, which takes CSnap's computer interface and replicates it off the computer.

To make CSnap Unplugged, I took the codelets one by one from each different panel and used Photoshop to enlarge and elongate the blocks into sizes that would be easy to manipulate. Shown in the image below is one sheet of CSnap Unplugged blocks.

<Some CSnap Unplugged blocks>

After printing out all the blocks we deemed fit for an unplugged set we used clear tape to laminate the sheets and cut out the blocks. We put these blocks into envelopes labeled Adinkra Computing Unplugged. In total we made four sets. 

<Cutting the blocks out> 

On Tuesday, July 22nd, we went to Ntonso Junior High and used these sets to practice building scripts. We began by introducing them to CSnap using a laptop projected onto a classroom wall. Using the compuetr we walked teachers through building a script on CSnap that stamped different Adinkra symbols onto a nine by seven unit grid. This script involved the computer science topics of storage and looping as well as math concepts like adding positives and negatives and plotting on the Cartesian coordinate grid. As we built this script on the projector teachers followed along building the same script with their unplugged sets.

<Using CSnap Unplugged with Ntonso Junior High teachers>

After using these sets we noticed some obvious flaws with the sets we provided them with. The blocks were paper thin and laminated and were therefore hard to handle and very slippery; the scripts wouldn't stay in the same formation that teachers were putting them in. We also had provided them with some numbers and positive/negative signs to input values into the blocks but they often ran out of these too fast.

To account for these flaws I am currently working on making a newer and improved version of CSnap Unplugged blocks that are no longer paper thin but rather three dimensional! And instead of using pre-made numbers to input values, each set will come with a dry erase marker which can be used on the laminated surface and then just wiped away. There was concern about the accessibility to dry erase markers in Ghana but we found a set here at the Kumasi bookstore so we know they are available in certain locations.

A Stamping Activity

On Tuesday with the Ntonso Junior High teachers we did an activity that combined C-Snap Unplugged and stamping. We had a total of about twenty teachers and four Adinkra Computing Unplugged sets, so we broke up into four groups of five. In each group they were split in half onto a team A and a team B. In the activity, team A used the unplugged set to create a stamping script similar to the example we had done. When they completed the script they could then use the stamps and ink we brought to stamp what they thought their script should look like onto a piece of paper. Then team B would use the stamped piece of paper to try and recreate the script that would make it. When they finished team A and team B could compare scripts to see what they did differently and talk about what works and why. Finally this process was repeated with team B scripting first and stamping. 

<Teacher's stamping their own creations>

The pieces of paper that we stamped were used to mimic the output screen on CSnap's digital interface.

<Stamping output on CSnap's computer interface>

Sustainability and Drawing on Local Resources

This was a perfect activity to do in Ntonso because it allowed us to draw on local resources, as it is the craft village?home of Adinkra. On Sunday we payed a visit to the stamp carver and he custom made mini-Adinkra stamps for us, about an eighth of the size of a normal stamp. He had never made a stamp so small before and really enjoyed the challenge.

<Custom made mini-Adinkra stamps>

Aside from the sheer cuteness of these mini-stamps there was some logic behind the request. We wanted to make CSnap unplugged as sustainable as possible and sometimes computers are not the only resource lacking in Ghanaian schools but just pens and paper can be a burden. By using mini stamps we were able to reduce the amount of paper that would be necessary to do the stamping activity. We also bought ink, from the Adinkra Ink maker right across the street who is also head of the school's PTA, in a pre-final stage. By using ink in this stage as apposed to a completed ink, it could be purchased at a much lower cost.

Other than using mini-stamps and cheap ink we wanted to provide the school with another alternative. So we also showed the possibility of stamping into a box of sand. We gave the school a plastic bin and then filled it with sand from the school's ground. Using the sandbox you could use a finger, stick, or butt end of a pen to draw the lines for a grid into it and then using full sized Adinkra stamps, which should have a lifespan  of two or three years before breaking, make a stamping pattern. After each new pattern you could just shake the box a little and have a clean slate for the next group.

A Visit to Ntonso and Introducing High School Students to Adinkra Computing

A Visit to Ntonso

Making Adinkra Ink

Adinkra Ink can only be made from the Badee tree, a tree that will only grow in Northern Africa. The bark of this tree is sent to Ntonso to be made into Adinkra ink. On Tuesday, July 15^th, I took a trip down there to learn about the process of making the ink.

First the bark must be stripped and soaked. The bark soaks in water kept outside in the hot African sun until all the wood starts to fall apart. After hours of soaking and sometimes days if it rains, the wood is pounded using human labor. The person we spoke to there said that this strenuous pounding process, which I had the opportunity to do myself, could never be done with a motor. He said with complete confidence that it just cannot make the ink right. It has been tried and it is always wrong; the curse of god demanding the hard work of man to get good ink. After the ink is pounded and pounded it is boiled. The Bark is boiled into ink using the arrangement of pots shown in the photo below. This arrangement has been the same for over one hundred years.    

<Badee Ink Bark>

<Pounding the Bark>

<Boiling Ink Bark>

 

Stamping Kente Cloth

Not only do they make the ink at Ntonso but they also use it there to stamp different Adinkra patterns onto Kente cloth. While there they let the RPI group I am part of stamp our own strip of Kente cloth for memorabilia. I chose a variation of Gye Nyame, the most famous Adinkra stamp in Ghana, and Adinkrahene both of which are excellent representatives of ethnomathematics and ethnocomputing because of log spirals and looping respectively. I also purchased and stamped my own Kente cloth while there to take home with me, using four different stamps each one to represent someone I love.

Traditional Symbols

Since 1993 the Adinkra carver/ stamper at Ntonso has been helping in the research of ethnomathematics and log spirals so it has been decided that the reference library of Adinkra symbols our project uses should be based off his stamps. So during my visit, I got stamps of all the stamps that were made at the time to use to revise the existing images in the reference library. There is so much variation in Adinkra that this will be a solid foundation for why our symbols look the way they do.

Introducing High School Students to Adinkra Computing

Today, my team returned to Kumasi High School to introduce Adinkra Computing to a group of about twenty ICT students. The session began with a pre-test asking three questions:

1.)    How would you describe what flow of control is?

2.)    How would you script the following image? 

3.)  What does looping do to the flow of control? 

We then continued on to explain what ethnomathematics is and how our project suggests an opportunity for ethnocomputing. In order to give focus and clarity to our lesson in CSnap there was an important question to be answered. So…

What is Adinkra Computing?

Adinkra Computing brings computer programming concepts together with Adinkra symbol carving and design. The discipline of ethnocomputing is used across different cultural contexts to reveal that present day computing concepts are embedded in local designs and artifacts. These designs and artifacts often have cultural and/or religious significance to groups of people in specific geographical locations. Adinkra symbols, being indigenous to Ghana, are examples of where computing and culture intersect. Since Adinkra symbols have concepts with computational significance embedded in them, learning to program CSnap introduces students to deep connections between computing and their heritage/culture. Adinkra Computing helps students to learn computational thinking by drawing on local Ghanaian design knowledge.

After addressing our purpose and research at the high school we began teaching through example how to use the program. The example we used for this is Adinkrahene, using the same script we had given to the ICT teachers at the PD workshop on Monday. This is a great example to use because Adinkrahene teaches flow of control, looping, reinforces math and geometry principles, and involves thinking about variables.

After getting students introduced to CSnap and practicing the Adinkrahene example with them we proposed a design challenge to them. The design challenge involved the Adinkra symbol Aya (the fern).

In this design challenge we provided on student’s computers the script to create,

, and challenged them to use the looping method we introduced in the Adinkrahene example to create the script that would add the remaining ferns.

Students were given about forty minutes to work on the design challenge. ICT teachers who had attended Monday’s PD workshop circulated while the students worked, or hopefully played, with CSnap and helped to guide them in the right direction; my team and I also circulated and offered are assistance. During the lesson I gave two hints to the students:

1.)    In the loop we need to figure out what is the same? This is the log spiral block that draws what the leaf will look like.

2.)    In the loop we need to figure out what is changing? This is the y position of where we draw the leaves.

In the forty minutes there was a steep hill to climb with some students, which is deeply connected to the ICT curriculum in Ghana, however a strong commitment to complete the challenge. For those students who completed the challenge early some helped their classmates, some students played with different blocks and variables to get a feel for what blacks do what, one student deleted the script including what we had given and what he had written in order to try and rewrite the entire script himself, and one very bright student used the program to create his own animation.

At the end of the lesson and design challenge the students were given the same three questions they were given earlier as a post test. Comparing the pre and post-test is a way of measuring the success of Adinkra Computing as a tool for teaching computer programming and helps is to both improve the CSnap software and also the way we go about teaching it. Overall the lesson was a huge success and we have been invited back to the school on Saturday to work with the ICT club!

Arriving in Ghana & Computational Thinking with Adinkra Professional Workshop

Arriving in Ghana

The flight from JFK in New York, NY to Accra, Ghana took about ten and a half hours. The time difference is four hours so we departed from JFK at 10:50 pm and arrived in Accra at 1:30 pm. The flight was through Delta airlines. They provided a blanket, pillow, eye mask, ear plugs, headphones, dinner, breakfast, and drinks all complimentary. On the back of every head seat were individual computer screens for travelers pre-downloaded with music, games, movies, and TV shows. I was very pleased with the trip and kept myself easily entertained. Sleeping was very challenging and I actually slept backwards for the brief time that I did. Upon arrival in Accra there is a sign that says Akwaba which is the local language for Welcome. Outside the airport men were playing drums, dancing, and standing on each others heads.

The first place we went from the airport was the cultural market center. 1 US dollar equals 3.35 Ghanaian cedi so shopping here was already one big sale. The Market is filled with high pressure salesmen and women... most of whom welcome you with, "come to my shop. no pressure." I purchased two paintings, one of a bubba tree and the other of Adinkra symbols, and a calabassa, a musical instrument. Purchases required some "negotiating" and was quite fun especially since with the exchange rate most everything was a good deal.

The first night we stayed at the Afia Beach Hotel in Accra which was along the Atlantic Ocean. It was particularly interesting because it either was on or near the Gulf of Guinea which is where the equator crosses the prime meridian. From Accra it was about a six hour ride in a van to the Kumasi Engineering Guest House where I am staying for the duration of the trip. The  ride was a game of avoid the pot holes, avoid the cars, and sometimes avoid the people as there are no sidewalks. The roads will come and go between dirt and road. While driving people would try and sell stuff through the windows and women will carry things on their head; fruit, water bottles, peanuts, etc. After arriving at The Engineering Guest House, or EGH, and settl

ing into my room the work began. 

  



Computational Thinking with Adinkra Workshop

Today my team, consisting of four: Michael, a social science phd student at RPI; Bill, a computer science phd student at RPI, Linda, an eighth grad science teacher; and myself,  hosted a professional development workshop with six teachers at Kumasi High School. The purpose of today’s workshop was to Introduce ICT teachers to CSnap and how computational thinking can be taught with the use of Adinkra. The workshop took place from 12 to 2 with six teachers present.

The workshop first began with answering the questions: What is computer programming? and What is Adinkra Computing? It then moved into computational thinking and Adinkra and what computer topics can be taught through the CSnap Adinkra Computing tool. During the workshop we taught five computer science topics: agile software design, flow of control, looping, variables and conditionals. For four out of five of these topics we used exemplary Adinkra symbols, which they were able to load the scripts for on their computer. I outline these symbols here.

Akoma

Meaning:

Akoma, translated in Akan to “heart”, is suggestive of the spiritual heart, not the physical heart. This symbol represents love, goodwill, patience, faithfulness, and fondness.

Applicable Computer Science Topics:
Flow of Control- The flow of control in a CSnap program starts with the “Flag When Clicked” block, with each code block attached being executed in turn from top to bottom.

CSnap Script to Create Akoma:

Adinkrahene

Meaning:

Adinkrahene, "Chief of the Adinkra symbols", represents greatness and leadership. The symbol of concentric circles was originally on gold medallions worn by "soul washers", officials who performed religious rituals for the chief, such as bathing ceremonial swords. The circles are said to resemble the expanding ripples from a pebble tossed into a pool of water, just as a great leader's influence can ripple across the nation. 

Applicable Computer Science Topics:

Looping- Looping alters the flow of control to repeat small sections of program code.

CSnap Script to Create Akoma:

Akokonan

Meaning:
Akokonan translates as "hen's foot," and it resembles one. The saying that comes with the symbol is "The hen treads on her chicks, but she does not kill them". Thus, it represents the idea of "tough love”, the combination of care and responsibility that we see in good leadership from our own parents or government institutions. 


Applicable Computer Science Topics:

Variables- A variable is a storage location in memory, used during a code execution to reference an established value. In CSnap students can define both local variables for individual Sprites as well as global variables accessible by all Sprites. The scope of a variable refers to when a value stored in a variable is available for use.

Conditionals - Conditionals alter the flow of control to execute a group of code blocks only when an expression evaluates to true.

In addition to variables in Akokonan, conditional control structures can be examined as they are used in the log spiral block to draw Akokonan. The code for the log spiral block can be manipulated to see how conditionals are implemented for clockwise and anticlockwise spiral drawings. To do this, right click on the log spiral block and choose ‘Edit’. A block editor window will open, showing the block definition below. Scroll to the bottom of the block definition window and notice how the ‘if’ control blocks use Boolean logic operators ‘true’ and ‘false’ to determine whether or not the code in the ‘if’ control block should execute._­

CSnap Script to Create Akoma:

Editing the Log Spiral Block:

Adinkra Goals Added and New Seats Reserved

Goals

A "Goals" feature has been added to the Adinkra computer programming tool. This feature allows a user to view a library of Adinkra symbols without leaving the program. This is useful for two reasons: One, it creates an easy way for students to look through symbols to see what ones they find interesting; Two, it makes it easy for students to look back at the symbol as they begin working on it, this is especially helpful for more intricate symbols.

When you first go on to the Adinkra computer programming tool, C-Snap, you will see the "Goals" button in the upper left hand corner as shown in the screenshot below.

When you click on the "Goals" button it will open up a library of seventy different Adinkra symbols to scroll through.

The user can select any of these thumbnail images to open up a full size image of the symbol and a description about the symbols meaning and origin. In this example I opened  the Adinkra symbol, Akofena.

Under the description, which is hard to read in the screenshot it says: Akofena, translated in Akan is the "Sword of War". Akofena is a state ceremonial sword; a retiring great warrior always has a royal sword of  rest as a recognition of gallantry. This symbol represents courage and valor. If I decided I liked this symbol and chose to recreate it, or make my own variation of it with the C-Snap program, I could refer back to this goal image at any time.

Reference Library

For the images used in the "Goals" feature I created our own copyright free reference library. This collection consists of a total of seventy Adinkra symbols made in either Microsoft Paint or Adobe Illustrator.

New Seats Reserved

Alas the trip to Ghana has been re-approved. Late last night RPI gave the official okay for the program to continue, with the clause that there be no travel outside of Kumasi permitted. Tickets have been purchased and new seats have been reserved. The new flight is tomorrow,Thursday July 10th, departing from JFK airport at 10:52 pm and the return flight has been re-booked for the original plan of Friday, August 1st at at 10:35 pm. They are both direct flights.

Project Overview and Travel Update

Project Overview

This June I will be traveling to Kumasi, Ghana to participate in research through RPI and their partnership with KNUST, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. I will be working on two different projects while there which I summarize in the proceeding paragraphs.

Ethnocomputing: Adinkra Symbols

The Asante people in Ghana use Adinkra symbols in their culture as a way of representing their history and beliefs. Each Adinkra symbol has a different meaning and these symbols are found in sculptures, architecture, and on cloths. There is much more that can be learned about Adinkra symbols, cloths, and their meanings at http://csdt.rpi.edu/african/adinkra/culture.html . 

Developed from these symbols is a computer software, C-Snap, that allows us to reverse engineer these symbols and discover the algorithms that were used years and years ago to create them. Because we are combining the culture of the Asante people with STEM; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; on a computer we call this teaching method Ethnocomputing.

The tool we use to teach teach these STEM principles is, as I mentioned before, C-Snap. You can access this tool at http://community.csdt.rpi.edu/applications/17 . This program has already been developed and improved upon a lot since it first was created. Through this tool there is much that can be taught to young people about geometry, graphing, and computer programming. While in Ghana I will be doing research on this tool, which is still in development. This will involve doing lesson plans centered around the software, collecting video screen captures of students using the tool, conducting interviews, taking field notes, and writing ethnography reports.

Solar Reflector 

The Ink used to make Adinkra symbols on cloth is made through an extensive and unsustainable process. To produce the ink, natives use large quantities of firewood, where deforestation is already a problem in Northern Africa, Northern Ghana included, and the process also causes smoke pollution which makes it a painful process for the natives to endure. More can be learned about this process at http://csdt.rpi.edu/african/adinkra/ink.html .

Working with five Ghanaian engineers and another undergraduate student at RPI we are working to replace this process by using sustainable power instead. The Solar Reflector in use has undergone many iterations in the past by different groups. The reflector uses a parabolic frame with a forty-eight inch metal piece laminated with a reflective film on it. Located above the metal reflector at the focal point of the parabola is the heat chamber for the ink, this chamber is made out of evacuated glass. 

At http://pdi-studio5.wp.rpi.edu/2013-2/ghana-outreach-solar-reflector/prototyping/ you can see where the most recent project group had left off. Since this group we have made several changes to the prototype to try and improve efficiency which must be replicated in Ghana.    

Travel Update

The initial departure date for Kumasi, Ghana was on July 1st, 2014 but due to recent robberies the flight has been delayed one week. About a week ago two RPI graduate students staying at the Engineering Guest House at KNUST, the same facility the group I am traveling with will be staying at, were robbed by three armed men. The KNUST staff and administration is taking this incident very seriously and is now beefing up security; they are adding hourly police patrols, armed security guards and university transportation.

As a result of this incident participants are being given the option to back out of the program; I am choosing to continue with it. For now the flight has been delayed and will likely be rescheduled for July 8th.