Scaling Nodes

The "minimal" node

Description

A minimal GPN workshop would following the following timeline:

• Tutors arrive and sign in

• Tutors set up classroom(s) with resources and snacks

• Students arrive and sign in

• Welcome speech by event lead(s)

• Students to go classroom(s)

• Students do start of day survey

• Students work on workbook with tutors doing lectures

• Students and tutors break for lunch

• Students to go classroom(s)

• Students work on workbook with tutors doing lectures

• Students do end of day survey

• Group photo with students and tutors

• Tutor debrief

For more details on what a GPN event day looks like and how to run one, read this page.

When you're ready

You should be aiming to do all of these from your very first workshop. Your node liaison will be on hand in the lead up and on the day to help you make sure they all get done. 

What extra prep/work is there

The prep to do all of these activities are covered in the base checklist <Link to the base checklist>

Adding Streaming Questions

Description

Once you get past 2 classrooms, students are unable to decide what level they are in accurately. For this reason we have streaming questions to work out what concepts students are already familiar with. Students will receive the sticker colour corresponding to the hardest concept they were familiar with from the streaming questions. 

The streaming questions are not meant to be a daunting experience, it is all in the name of the students having the most fun. Reassure students that they will get to stay with their friends regardless of which questions they can answer. 

Levels are a scary concept for students, as they feel they are being graded, for some students and (and parents) the streaming quiz can also provoke a competitive attitude to get into “the best” classroom - which is not its purpose. While the tutors know there are three levels; beginner, intermediate, and advanced, the students don’t need to know this. Each question in the streaming quiz has a different coloured sticker, so there are more colours than levels and they don’t map directly to a level. 

Running the streaming process at registration

After students have checked in on Humanatix and made a name tag they proceed to the Streaming Questions station. A tutor with the streaming question sheet will take a student (we try and split them from their friends/siblings, so the friends don’t see the answers or try and do it together) and will start with the question “Have you done any programming before?”, if the answer is no they immediately get the first coloured sticker. If the student has done some programming before the tutor continues to show the student questions until they can no longer answer the question, the student receives the colour of the final question they were able to answer. 

It can be helpful to have the streaming questions separated from the sign in area to make it clear to parents where the drop off and hand over happens. We have had parents try and do the streaming questions for their students or pressure their students into doing well so that they “get into a good classroom” - we don’t want this at GPN, so we try and make sure the parents say goodbye at the sign in and before the students do the streaming questions. Note: some students may struggle with anxiety or other issues that mean they need a parent with them, in which case we do our best to accommodate.

Splitting students into classrooms

At the end of the welcome speech students are split into classrooms using an algorithm based on sticker colour and school year, with an exception for students who want to stay with friends (friend groups should go to the room matching the ability of the least experienced student). 

The process works as follows (MAKE A VIDEO OF THIS):

1. Introduce that you will be splitting into rooms, you can show the room names/pictures on the screen at this time (do not tell the students the levels).

2. Demonstrate how if friends/siblings want to stay together they should wait to go until the final student’s colour/year group is called. (This is best done through a skit)

3. Start with the most advanced room - call the colour corresponding to the hardest concept. 

   • Ensure that there are not more students with that colour sticker than there are spots in the room. If there are more students than fit, split older students into this room, and tell younger students to wait. (eg. “Who’s in year 9 and up, yes you all fit. Year 7 and 8 you’ll be in the next room”)

   • If you don’t have enough students, move on to the next colour, but be careful not to mix too many ability levels into the same room. (It is ok to have smaller advanced rooms that are for students that are familiar with the 2-3 most difficult concepts)

   • When you are happy with the size and skill range of the classroom, send them with their tutors to the appropriate room.

4. Move onto the next highest classroom, repeat this process until you get to the easiest beginner classroom (this should be your youngest, least experience students at the end)

Note: sometimes at the end of the algorithm, once all the students are in their classrooms there are too many students in a room. This might happen if we’ve mis-counted or if there are some computers not working in the room. While the students are doing the ice breaker, the event lead should go around to each room and check that every student has a working computer, and if not move students around (still keeping in mind their ability, year level and friend groups) so that everyone can fit with a working computer.

When to add this

When you have more than 2 classrooms you need to add this. 

What extra prep/work is there

• Have the streaming questions printed before the event with your other printing

• Buy different coloured stickers that will fit on the name tags 

• Assign sticker colours to the questions (there are colours on the sheet, but you may have different colours available to you)

• Assign and train a tutor to lead the streaming questions and tutors to help with this as a morning job

More on leveling

Typically we assume that the students in these levels understand the following concepts, but may need revision

Beginners

• No prior coding experience

• Might have coded a few times, but doesn’t really know the basics, or doesn’t know them in Python (maybe has only done block code before)

Intermediate

• Variables

• If statements

• For or while loops

• Might know a basic data structure like a list

Advanced

• Comfortable with loops and probably lists

• Dictionaries - may not be familiar, but can understand easily

• Might have seen functions before 

More on classroom sizing

An ideal classroom size is between 15 and 25 students. Fewer than 15 students can feel a bit small and not as fun and engaging, more than 25 can start to get a bit loud and chaotic. You can go over 25 (though we strongly recommend no more than 35 students in a room) and you can go below 15 (though we strongly recommend no fewer than 5 students in a room) when needed.

In general, GPN attracts more beginners than intermediate or advanced students, and so our classroom sizing and distribution will also reflect this.

Beginners also tend to do better in larger classrooms where they can work through their problems in a big group, and advanced students tend to do better with smaller classrooms with more in-depth discussions of their specific code.

Here are some examples of classroom distributions:

1. A workshop has 38 students signed up. This is too many students for one classroom, so we could split them in the following ways

   1. Have two “beginner” classrooms of 19. This is an even split, but there are likely going to be some students who aren’t beginners who might find the content too slow

   2. Have one “beginner” classroom of 19 and one “intermediate+” (intermediate and advanced) classroom of 19. This is also an even split, but we know that beginners take up the majority of our signups, so we are likely to have beginners in the “intermediate” classroom who will be confused and fall behind

   3. Have one “beginner” classroom of 25, one “intermediate+” (intermediate and advanced) classroom of 13. The “intermediate+” classroom is a little small, but we know that the more advanced students do well in smaller classes where they can ask more detailed questions. ✅

2. A workshop has 100 students signed up. If we divide this number by 20 (our ideal class size) we will have 5 classrooms. How might we split this up?

1. 1. Have 5 classes of 20 (3 beginners, 1 intermediate, 1 advanced). This option allows for more beginners, but the distribution is still off, as it’s very unlikely that we have 20 advanced students at an event of this size

   2. Have 5 classes of the following sizes: 25 beginners, 25 beginners, 20 beginners, 20 intermediate, 10 advanced. Once we have 3 beginner rooms, the third beginner class is usually a mix of beginners and intermediate, so that classroom should be a little smaller. Having a dedicated intermediate class means that the only students in advanced are really advanced and can have a small class with lots of 1:1 tutor discussion about technical ideas. ✅

Note: with these distributions, these are always estimates we do before the event to decide on the tutor numbers needed to allocate to each room. On the day of the event, we count how many students end up in each level/room and may find that our estimates are wrong and we need to move some tutors around - this is fine and to be expected, and you may learn that your community of GPN students has a different distribution than this and you will get better at anticipating how big each class needs to be

Adding "Computerless Computing" Games

Description

Computerless Computing Games (or “Computerless” for short) are one of our after lunch activity options. This is our basic option (this one can be run without the Mentor Hangz option, but not vice versa). 

Computerless games: 

• Give students a break from screen time

• Give them time to move around

• Lets students decompress and gives them a chill time while they digest their lunch (they can get sleepy at this time)

• Allow students to interact with their friends that may be in different classrooms to them or make new friends

• Let us explore technology concepts and ideas related to the workbook material that can’t be explored easily in the classrooms through code

For each workbook there is a corresponding computerless activity. The activities take various forms from scavenger hunts, to worksheets, to hands-on building activities.

When to add it

You’re ready to take on this task once your tutors are comfortable with running the minimal workshop. 

Keep in mind that some of the activities are pseudo-competitive (go as fast as you can, but everyone still gets a prize), so think about how you will implement this with a small cohort of students for smaller nodes (<15 students).

You should be adding Computerless Games by the time you have a third classroom. 

What extra prep/work is there

• Ensure you have a large enough space to support the activity.

• Make sure you have any necessary budget for purchasing resources that are needed, including some lolly prizes.  

• Resource prep - The preparation for each computerless game is different depending on the activity specifications. They can involve:

  • Printing

  • Cutting up papers in the lead up to the event

  • Bluetacking posters to walls

  • Purchasing playdough or other items

  • Having pens, pencils, and other stationary on hand.

• Having tutors understand the activity in advance to be able to support students, to check answers, or play a role/character in the activity.

Adding Mentor Hangz

Description

Mentor Hangz is an after lunch activity for the older students (typically years 10, 11 and 12) to give them an opportunity to ask the tutors questions about university, working in tech and life after high school in general. It is run at the same time as computerless games as an alternative option.

Mentor Hangz is run in a different room from computerless games and typically has a lead tutor and a number of “mentors” (aligned with the number of students who will participate in Mentor Hangz - at least 1 tutor:3 students but not more than 1 tutor:1 student).

The basic Mentor Hangz model is to put the students into groups (typically grouped by year) of 3-5, and spread the mentors around the room and have the groups of students spend 5-10 minutes talking with each mentor before rotating to the next. If you have a large number of mentors, then you can have the mentors pair up as well. If you don’t have enough students to make multiple groups, you can have one big group discussion instead of rotating.

When choosing which tutors are mentors at Mentor Hangz, we try and get a roughly even distribution of experiences (1st-2nd year university, 3rd year + university, working in industry) and prioritise tutors who we know have interesting or alternative pathways so that the students have the chance to hear about lots of different ways you can get into or be in Tech. We find that the younger mentors are more relatable to the students since they are similar in their ages and life experience, while the more experienced mentors have good big-picture wisdom they can share. We also prioritise mentors who are part of our sponsor organisations - you can read more on this requirement in the Sponsor Interactions section.

Sometimes the students struggle to come up with questions or things to ask the mentors, so it can be helpful to have the mentors introduce themselves at the beginning to everyone, including what sorts of questions they might know how to answer (e.g. going on exchange or doing a double degree) to get the students to start thinking about what they want to talk about. It can also help to give the mentors some example questions that they may want to prompt the students with (e.g. asking them what subjects they are doing, or what universities or degrees they are thinking of). We also have a list of example questions for students that you can show on the projector or print out and distribute. 

While it’s great for the mentors to talk about university and tech, it’s also fine for them to talk about general interests like TV shows or hobbies and just help the students feel included.

When you're ready

Once you have enough experienced tutors to run both computerless games and Mentor Hangz and you have enough older students (at least 4) in years 10, 11 and 12.

What extra prep/work is there

• Assign and train a Mentor Hangz lead and mentors

• Add a slide to the after lunch slides introducing Mentor Hangz

• Have example questions on hand (digitally or physically)

Alternate options

Accessing Mentors from Around Australia

If you would like to run Mentor Hangz but you don’t have enough tutors with experience in the tech industry you can reach out to the GPN Australia committee to “Dial a mentor”. In this model you set up a video call with a mentor from another node, and run a group discussion with them (showing them on a projector) in which students get to chat to them about their experiences and ask them questions about the tech industry and what studying tech in university is like. 

Adding Public Transport Pick Up

Description

Sometimes GPN is hosted near major public transport hubs and we want to make sure that students are able to arrive safely to our events. For example, in Sydney we are hosted at UTS which is very close to Central station, which includes train lines, buses and light rail. We have a specific spot in Central where a group of tutors meet up with students who are coming to the event by train, bus or light rail, and we help them walk to UTS so that they don’t get lost.

When students sign up to the event they indicate whether they will be taking public transport to the event. We create a list of all students who are taking public transport. Before the event we tell all these students where to meet the Pickup Lead Tutor including a map and any landmark directions (e.g. exit signs to follow), and a phone number to call if they get lost or are running late. 

On the day of the event the Pickup Lead Tutor and other assigned tutors will be waiting at the allocated spot to collect the students. As students arrive they get marked off, and when a large enough group is collected they are taken by 1-2 tutors to the event location. Once the event is starting the Pickup Lead Tutor checks if any of their list of students went straight to the event without being picked up by them and marks them off. Any students still unaccounted for get called and parents get texted to figure out if they are lost or just not coming.

After the event, there is a Drop-off Lead Tutor who takes anyone who wants to walk back to the public transport hub so that they know the way. 

When to add this

If your event is running near a public transport hub (e.g. a major train station), and it’s likely that students will be arriving through there, and you have enough tutors to support this, we recommend adding it to help keep the students safe and make it easier for parents to feel comfortable letting them come via public transport.

What extra prep/work is there

• Add extra questions to the sign up form for students to gather how they are going to get to the event and the student phone number

• Assign and train a Pickup and Drop-off Lead and helping tutors

• Create and print the list of students that are going to be arriving by public transport

• Create map/instructions for how get to the allocated pickup spot

• Email students arriving by public transport to give them instructions and contact number

GPN Junior

GPN Junior (GPNJ) is a separate program from main GPN. It targets students in years 3-6 and allows students in years 9+ to volunteer. 

Nodes need to have a strong GPN volunteer base to take on another program, including a strong leadership committee. This is because to run the extra program there needs to be a second committee just to run GPNJ, and it will put strain on the existing GPN leadership team.

If you think you are ready to run GPN Junior, you can reach out to the GPN executive and they will help you decide if you’re ready and help you get set up to run the new program in addition to GPN.