← Back to course
Intro to CS 9-10 / Week 12 / Mission Quest
6/6
Week 12 · Safe, Fair and Ready: Beacon Launch Review

Mission Quest

Mission Quest: Launch day demo
// Privacy, security, fairness and a launch day demo
⏱ about 20 min

Mission Quest: Launch Day Demo

The galley is set up like a small theater. A paper banner reads Beacon Launch Day.

Comet practices her opening line. "Beacon watches the greenhouse so the crew can watch the stars."

Wren straightens the design brief on its stand: requirements, pseudocode, tests, data, network and the launch review.

"What do you notice?" he asks. "Every page has a fix we made because someone asked a good question."

Nova dims the lights and floats a soft spotlight onto the stage. "Your audience is here," she says.

Comet grins at you, the developer who made it all work. "Let's launch it together."

  1. PII identifies or describes a person. Collect only what an app truly needs.
  2. Strong passwords, multifactor authentication and encryption protect devices and data.
  3. Phishing tries to trick people into giving personal information. Pause and check another way.
  4. Every security measure trades some usability for security. The users and the data decide the balance.
  5. Fair apps test with real users, check their assumptions and give credit for others' work.
◇ THE LAUNCH DAY DEMO
First, make a one-page design brief: Beacon's purpose, its users, three requirements, one piece of pseudocode and your launch review results. Use Friday's cover sketch on top.
Present your Beacon design brief to your family: its purpose, its users and how it works.
Walk them through one piece of pseudocode and explain what it does, line by line.
Share your launch review: one Pass, one Fix and why the fix matters.
Invite your audience to be the review board. Ask each person for one question or idea.
End with a countdown from ten and a launch cheer.
For a grown-up
Your student has spent twelve weeks designing, writing, testing and reviewing an app on paper.
Today, talk together about your family password and multifactor habits. Do not share any real passwords aloud or on paper.
Ask: what makes an app safe, fair and ready? What would you check before trusting a new app?
LAUNCH CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Before launch, what should every app go through?
Someone asks you for a real password during a demo. What do you do?
Which is the best way to find a bias in your app?
What is the name of the app you designed all course? Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISETwelve weeks, one app, built and reviewed by you. Congratulations, developer!
On paper, sketch a launch badge for yourself as the developer of Beacon.
← Friday