Team Meeting Submission Material Learning Journey, it should include: 200 words about your learning journey, must be in English What did your team learn (technically or otherwise)? How did you overcome challenges? What resources did you use to build on (examples, tutorials, open source code)? 2-6 pictures that describe your journey Images of your user research results, survey results, etc. Pictures or screenshots of prototypes or previous versions of your project View all the submission guidelines here.

Team Meetings

Technovation team recommendations:

Start with an icebreaker! 

This is a great way to get your team comfortable and in the mindset to work on their project.

Set a schedule

• Review the suggested timeline with the team so they stay on target.
• Agree upon a weekly day/time to meet and stick to it.
• Set clear expectations with your team. Be conscious and honest about your work and personal life balance.

Team Agreement - this will help you and your team openly talk about:

• expected behaviours of each other and their mentor(s)
• schedules
• time commitment to working on the program
• communication tools
• use this Mentor/Coach copy that includes some guiding questions to make the process of filling this out more straight-forward

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Mentoring Virtually

Our program will be led virtually in many areas. We want to support mentors with our resources below.

Being a virtual mentor

• Resource document
• Video, accompanying slides
  • Learn more about team building and motivation with this video from Technovation's 2020 World Summit ft. Bryant and Mackenzie from our Volunteer Engagement Team!

Virtual team building 

Tips on leading virtual learning - Student Ambassador and Technovation Girls 2019 student winner, Dea, in Albania shares how to lead virtual sessions for students learning to code and build innovative projects.

Collaborating online

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Conflict Management

As a mentor, you want to help maintain productive and positive team dynamics by setting expectations and mediating disagreements that may arise among team members. This includes:

• Completing a team agreement with your team to set recurring meeting times and expectations (of each other and you as their mentor) for the program
  • The team agreement is a great conflict management tool. When the team runs into disagreements, you have the team agreement to refer the team back to. Use it to work them back to their ideal team environment.
• Acting as a neutral party in team disputes to help team members understand what the disagreement is about and make a collective, informed decision
• Supporting teams through differences of opinions
• Bringing in appropriate supports for conflict resolution (such as chapter or club ambassadors and/or parents/guardians)

Ideation Submission Material Project Name & 100-word description, it should include: What is the problem you are trying to solve? Who does the problem affect? How does the problem affect them? Why is it important to solve? View all the submission guidelines here.

Ideation Resources

Encourage your team to pick a problem to solve:

• Identifying problems in week 1 of the student curriculum is a great starting point!
• Get your team to look at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). This is a great starting point since it gives them 17 categories to explore. Have them pick 2-3 that they may be interested in exploring.
• Share the Technovation App Gallery with them to get ideas from previous seasons.
• Encourage them to think about and talk to different people in their communities to figure out what challenges people are facing that they may be able to create a solution for.

Websites to track team's brainstorming/mind mapping

• Google Jamboard 
• Miro
• MindMeister
• Padlet
  • tip: there is a maximum 3 padlets on the free version. When you need a 4th, pick of the existing padlets that does not need to be edited anymore and export it as an image or PDF. Now you can delete it and create a new one!

If you have other websites to suggest, share them with the Technovation Team

Coding and AI Submission Material Mobile App Source Code or AI Training Data Mobile App source code should be submitted depending on the language used: MIT App Inventor - .aia file OR Thunkable - Project Link OR Other Languages - zip file  Recommended bonus: Include basic instructions on using the app and demo user login information (username/password if needed) for judges to test within the .zip file or via comments in App Inventor or Thunkable AI Projects should include 1 zip file that contains: Screenshot of dataset training (ML4Kids, TeachableMachine, App Inventor, etc.) or spreadsheet or link to images/sounds folder. Picture(s) of prototype (cardboard model, drawings, devices) (For online inventions) Any link with demo login information View all the submission guidelines here.

Coding and AI Resources

Here is a searchable collection of our recommended resources.

Technovation has Youtube playlists full of video tutorials for Technovation Girls:

• AI Tutorials for Technovation Girls
• Technovation Beginners AI Concepts
• Coding Tutorials for Technovation Girls

Below are some recommended tutorials from each playlist to get you started on your coding journey.

Thunkable:

• Code Your First App
• Code an App in Thunkable
• Code a Social App
• Builiding a Motivation App

MIT App Inventor: 

• Getting Started with MIT App Inventor
• Make a Simple App with App Inventor
  
• Make a Motivational App
  
• Build a Translation App

AI:

• Using number data to make an AI model
  • Finding a public dataset
  • Using a public dataset to train an AI model
  • Using the trained model in a Scratch project
• Using image data to make an AI model
  • Training the AI model
  • Adding the model to App Inventor
  • Coding the app using the model
• Machine Learning 4 Kids (ML4K) 
  • Setting up a ML4K Account

Entrepreneurship Submission Material Beginner teams have no entrepreneurship material to submit. User Adoption Plan (junior teams only) Your plan must be in English. Junior teams: Use the template (also provided in the curriculum) to complete your User Adoption Plan. Business Plan (senior teams only) Your plan must be in English. Senior teams: consult the guidelines in the curriculum for a 5-10 page Business Plan. View all the submission guidelines here.

 

Pitch Submission Material The videos must be uploaded as unlisted or publicly viewable. We cannot guarantee videos without these credentials will be judged. If you are not speaking English in your videos, you must include English subtitles. And we highly recommend that videos have English subtitles even if English is spoken in the video. Pitch Video Maximum of 3 minutes Share via Youtube or Vimeo. Should show viewers why the problem is important to you, how you approached your solution, why it’s the best solution and how it will have positive impact. Technical Video Maximum of 3 minutes Share via Youtube or Vimeo. Should show viewers how your project works, how you coded or built it, about user feedback, and what future features you’re planning to implement. View all the submission guidelines here.

 

Discussing a Crisis with Students

Increasingly, global strife is affecting students everywhere— and students are aware of the difficulties befalling them and their peers. Many of us may not feel prepared to start or facilitate difficult conversations to address concerning the current events. We hope these resources can be a starting point.

We have found these resources helpful when preparing to talk to students — and our own children. If there are other resources you have found useful (generally, or for a specific situation in your region) please share them on our slack channel and be sure to tag us so we can review and add to this list over time.

General Resources

• “How to talk to kids when scary things are happening in our everyday lives?” (NPR, audio)
• "Helping Kids Navigate Scary News Stories" (PBS Kids)
• Guidelines for discussing difficult or high-stakes topics (University of Michigan)

Discussing the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol

• How to talk to your classroom (Facing History and Ourselves)
• January 6, 2021 Resource Guide (NY Department of Education)
• Resources for teachers to discuss the insurrection at the US Capitol (Beyond the Stoplight)

Booklists

Looking for additional reading you can do with your kids or share with your students? Check out these books. 

Antiracist children book list (Rise Up Against Racism)

2024 Newsletter Archive

The Technovation team sends out newsletters via email to keep mentor informed about updates or upcoming program milestones. We know sometimes emails get tricky to find in your inbox, so here's an easy to access archive for when the search function just isn't getting you there.

• Complete your mentor onboarding (originally sent October 25, 2023)
• Discover update mentor resources & find a team (originally sent November 1, 2023)
• Mentor Office Hours, Ideation, and More! (originally sent November 22, 2023)

This page is in the process of being updated, coaches can feel free to browse the other resources on this page for the time being.