Pioneer Posters

[retabak]

Oooookay! I attempted to throw together a little something. Here it is! ajay.pdf

Please know that I am not a graphic designer and I really did try my best and I recognize that what I've created is not phenomenal.

That said (and much more importantly!), coming up with a template led to me to a lot of questions / insights that I'm excited to dig into with y'all, @flannery-denny and @schanzer . I am hyped to chat about a more specific vision for what this project / poster series entails. (I recognize some of these convos may have happened before I joind the team, in which case, let's get me up to speed... And brainstorm some more!)

Here are a few things I learned / contemplated while creating my crappy little poster:

• I used this online tool to convert the photo into a "sketch." I used the free version of the tool, so the quality of my sketch is not great. (Paying a subsription fee -about $20/month - results in higher quality images.) I do like the idea of using a tool like this - to give all of the posters a uniform vibe (like they are part of one series with the same look / feel), and to make it so our posters can be printed by teachers and still look attractive. (Printing a photo on a B&W printer does NOT produce great results. Nothing I'd want to hang up in my classroom, at least.)

• Maybe we don't need text on the posters at all? (I thought of this idea AFTER I made my draft.) I spent some time poking around TpT poster bundles of famous people (a few are here, here, here, and here) and noticed that some of the ones I am most drawn to have minimal / no text. I realize this is a personal preference, but - as a teacher - I think I'd enjoy hanging up cool, striking images of awesome pioneers rather than pages filled with text. Students could inquire about the images and we could chat about these people and that would be rewarding for all!

• If we go in that direction (very limited text) we should provide teachers with information on these folks. Oooh! Or, maybe the actual poster has minimal text but we have a weekly blog post series where folks can learn about such-and-such Pioneer? (Maybe y'all thought of this already?) And! We could include little mini lessons or discussion prompts (nothing SUPER labor-intensive for us or for teachers) surrounding these people! We could even connect the blog series to BHM and other heritage months!

• Would it be beneficial to have TWO versions of the posters - one that's B&W and one that's in color? I see a lot of benefit to having a B&W set but recognize they won't be as pretty.

[flannery-denny]

1. I feel strongly that we need at least the amount of text that you've included on the mockup you sent. Happy to talk about why if you want.
2. I expect us to hype this poster series periodically and feature posters from them during all of the various months... but I don't think committing to weekly blogposts is in any way realistic for our team right now.
3. I was imagining color posters. Other posters sets I know of for teachers to print themselves offer both versions.

[flannery-denny]

1. I feel strongly that we need at least the amount of text that you've included on the mockup you sent. Happy to talk about why if you want.
2. I expect us to hype this poster series periodically and feature posters from them during all of the various months... but I don't think committing to weekly blogposts is in any way realistic for our team right now.
3. I was imagining color posters. Other posters sets I know of for teachers to print themselves offer both versions.

[schanzer]

@schanzer will identify an automated filter tool to process these images

[retabak]

@retabak

• will try to create two sets of posters, prioritizing B&W over color
• will think about adding a badge system (Pride flag, country of origin)
• will think about polishing the spreadsheet so that the amount of text is approximately the same per person
• maybe reorganize the spreadsheet
• will shrink font size in order to fit badges maybe under career?
• add Boot icon
• text at bottom should refer to "our Pioneers in Computer Science and Mathematics Series"

[retabak]

fyi @schanzer !

My assessment of Rena's spreadsheet is that the text is not quite ready to put directly onto posters. @flannery-denny agrees. When we chatted, we discussed how the text describing the pioneers needs to be revised, namely:

• we want to define unfamiliar tech terms and big words in student-friendly ways
• we want to highlight relatable / inspiring stories of overcoming obstacles in addition to computing/math achievements
• all text blurbs need to be approximately the same length

And so: I'm going to choose about 30 pioneers (that could potentially be showcased in Flannery's recent lesson) and work on polishing / revising their little biographies to meet our needs a little bit better.

Hoping this sounds good to you!

[schanzer]

@retabak this sounds perfect. Exactly what I would have hoped for, and then some!

[flannery-denny]

just had a thought about posters. was imagining how I'd have to frame them with construction paper in order to have them not blend into the wall. Made me wonder if the color version could literally have a border framing the edges... and the author could decide which frame to use for that person... rainbow flag frame for queer folks, etc. maybe too much? just a thought. and perhaps we're only working on the b&w images for now.

[schanzer]

I think borders are essential in any context -- most printers don't offer total edge-to-edge printing. Let's assume at least a 1/2" margin all around?

[retabak]

@flannery-denny Here is the spreadsheet with the Pioneer blurbs!

Feel free to directly edit but if you're unclear on a decision I made or want me to explain something, add a comment.

As you read, please you think about: does this collection of folks seem balanced (i.e. good representation of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc)?

Side note: I learned a little bit about Lee Lorch while reading about Evelyn Granville. (He pressured the American Mathematical Society to host their conference at a venue that would allow participants of color to attend, after Granville was excluded.) I then started wondering if it would be useful to have some posters about pioneering allies (who are likely white, heterosexual).... or maybe that is just centering whiteness and we don't wanna go there.

[flannery-denny]

@retabak I don't think we would make a poster about Lee Lorch because he's an ally. But Pioneers are not inherently POC, so if Lee Lorch would be described as a pioneer in his own right for his contributions to mathematics, his story could certainly include his work as an ally.

[flannery-denny]

We have 30 texts written. I am pushing them all to git so that we have a record of them.

• [x] We need to upload images for Farida Bedwei, Alan Turing, and Al-Kwharizmi
• [ ] Rachel is going to process a Maddog picture for us, and then we need to add it.

I am going to delete the following pages from git for now.

We're waiting on reasonable pictures for these

• Thomas David Petite - picture missing
• Clarence Ellis
• Jerry Lawson
• Cristina Amon
• Evelyn Granville

These should maybe fall by the wayside... both are missing images and

• Frederick Jones - He's very cool, but I agree with Shriram, the text does not establish a connection to computing or mathematics.
• Gomez - Shriram points out that while we've told a decent story, her startup really doesn't go anywhere and this runs the risk of a fluff piece for diversity.

Shriram also suggested cutting:

• Ochoa
• Ross While I agree that there are other astronauts we could add, I think these two ladies are pretty rocking and their work definitely falls squarely in math / computing, so I'd like to keep them.

[schanzer]

@flannery-denny no need to delete pages from git, if we plan on using them eventually!

[flannery-denny]

ok. in that case, use this as a record of what we shouldn't include in the pdf / on the landing page.

On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 3:39 PM Emmanuel Schanzer @.***> wrote:

@flannery-denny https://github.com/flannery-denny no need to delete pages from git, if we plan on using them eventually!

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/bootstrapworld/curriculum/issues/649#issuecomment-1021633748, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AP4Z7TA4FXYVBNKQCRXSLSDUX4KAHANCNFSM5HHEPJFA . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

-- Flannery Denny (she/ella/elle/sie) Curriculum Developer & Teacher Trainer | Bootstrap bootstrapworld.org Looking for more Bootstrap? Check out our blog https://www.bootstrapworld.org/blog/index.shtml, or follow us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/BootstrapWorld, instagram https://www.instagram.com/bootstrapworld/ and twitter https://twitter.com/bootstrapworld. Confidentiality notice: This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message by error, please delete it from your records.

[flannery-denny]

@schanzer Sorry to report that I am still unable to build the full pdf. Zero progress after several minutes (and the link to it from the materials section of the lesson plan straight up doesn't work). I'm sure that my computer & internet connection aren't as zippy as Dorai's, but I'm also sure that my setup is faster than many and I don't usually struggle with loading anything else on our website... so the current solution doesn't work. I've commented out two more posters whose images don't look good. And will dig back in to following up with folks to locate more good pictures so that we can get the poster numbers back up.

In my ideal world, next steps would be:

1. Make a full pdf by hand that we can link now from the secret version of the lesson we share out for feedback. Make sure it includes the pioneers-cover.adoc as the first page and only the people who are currently appearing on the pioneers landing page.
2. Give a careful read to the wording of the worksheets listed in the materials section and change wording as you see fit.
3. Send me a secret url that I can share for feedback from former colleagues.

Also, now that you've done some more work with the images (including scaling some of them down to fit the posters), can you please give me a smaller number than 2000 x 2000 pixels that is what we actually need. That constraint led Maddog to send us images that we couldn't use (too dark/holding a microphone) so it would be really helpful to know a real minimum size before I write him back with another request.

Thanks!

[schanzer]

What url are you using?