Group: Women's Caucus/Projects/Girl Scouts Free Software Outreach

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Summary

We will be involved in a 10-week (a single, 1 hour-long session per week) Inkscape course for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, in order to introduce girls to free software. We will be running a pilot after-school program in October-November of 2010. The girls' age group is middle school.

During the course, the girls will learn to use Inkscape to compete in a contest to design a logo for the Girl Scouts' FaB Factor program.

The Inkscape course will be part of the FaB Factor program. The program emphasizes courses have three phases:

  • discover
  • connect
  • take action

From the Girl Scouts' website:

"The program focuses on 4 modules:

  • "Financial Literacy (Finance and Banking)
  • "Health and Fitness (Fit and Beautiful)
  • "Leadership (‘F’araohs and Beacons)
  • "STEM disciplines (Fractions, Fixtures and Bytes, Beakers)."

Our program is part of the STEM disciplines, specifically 'Fixtures and Bytes' and is meant to give the girls an introduction to the technical sciences.

Volunteer Agreement Document

We need to write up a list of the services we will render for the Girl Scouts - Rachael called this a Memorandum of Understanding document. Here is an example of what this sort of document looks like from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts' website:

Notes from Rachael

Here is what Rachael told us the document needs to cover:

  • List of services we will render
    • what we will provide
    • place monetary value on what is being offered
  • What we need from the Girl Scouts
    • faciltator - danielle
    • computers
    • access
  • Incorporate in MOU - memorandum of understanding

Volunteer Agreement Document Draft

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts agrees to:

  • Provide a facilitator for the program (Kim).
  • Provide computers for the students to use with internet access.
  • Provide a computing facility with a projector and whiteboard or chalkboard.
  • Identify students eligible for the program and handle the arrangements for their course registration / attendance.
  • Provide access to the lab to Máirín Duffy no less than a week in advance of the program start to test the computers available and perform a dry-run of the equipment.
  • Provide photo-release forms for the students and allow the FSF Womens' Caucus and Red Hat, Inc. to take photos during the course.

(The following were taken from the example document):

  • Provide a position description, volunteer agreement, and letter of appointment.
  • Give recognition for time devoted to the position.
  • Be receptive to any comments from the volunteer regarding ways in which we might mutually better accomplish our respective tasks.
  • Carry liability insurance and supplementary accident insurance as needed.
  • Provide ongoing support, guidance and supervision for the position.

The Free Software Foundation Womens' Caucus and Red Hat, Inc. agrees to:

  • Provide 40 USB drives for the Girl Scouts students and facilitators to keep.
  • Pre-load the USB drives with all of the software necessary to complete the course work.
  • Provide printed instructional materials for working with the USB drives.
  • Provide a 10-week course curriculum using free software (particularly, Inkscape) for the students to complete.
  • Provide printed worksheets and instructions for the course curriculum as required.

(The following were taken from the example document):

  • Support the values expressed in the Girl Scout Promise and Law, and adhere to GSEM and GSUSA policies and standards.
  • Relate to others with fairness, tolerance, understanding, and sensitivity while working cooperatively with adults - including staff, facilitators, and participants.
  • Register as a member of GSUSA and complete a criminal background check.
  • Complete required adult learning and training.
  • Communicate regularly with the Volunteer Development & Training Department about scheduling, supplies, follow-up, and any concerns about learning sessions or participants.
  • Perform volunteer duties to the best of his/her ability.

Other Opportunities with the Girl Scouts

  • On April 9, 2011, the Girl Scouts have a womens' history program we may want to get involved with.

USB Keys

The USB keys are running the Fedora Design Suite, with some minor tweaks. They are created on 2GB USB keys. Roughly 900 MB is the OS; there is a 512 MB persistent overlay for installing applications on top, and there is a 512 MB FAT partition for the girls to store their files (they are accessible if plugged into other operating systems as well.

Here's how to create them:

Creating the ISO Image

You'll need a Fedora system with the livecd-tools package installed. Download the pandix.ks kickstart file and the fedora-live-mini.ks file and run the following script in the same directory:

setarch i686 livecd-creator --config=pandix.ks --fslabel=Fedora --cache=/var/cache/live

Partitioning the USB keys

You'll need the GNOME Disk Utility (palimpsest) to do this. It's a nice GUI tool. It took me only 10 minutes to run through this with 16 keys.

  • Open up the disk utility (Applications > System Tools > Disk Utility)
  • Stick USB in the slot
  • Click on "USB DISK" in the left hand side. Make sure it's the right one (check brand name, space, etc.)
  • Click "Unmount Volume" in lower-left of right-hand pane.
  • Click "Format Drive" in upper-left of right-hand pane.
  • In the "Format" dialog that appears, select "Master Boot Record" and click "Format."
  • Click "Create Partition" in the lower-left of the right-hand pane.
  • In the "Create Partition" window select the following:
    • Size: 512 MB (hit enter, make sure you use capital letters for "MB")
    • Type: FAT
    • Name: My Files
    • Do not click the encryption checkbox
    • Press the "Create" button
  • In the "Volumes" diagram, click the white "Free" rectangle.
  • Click "Create Partition" in the lower-left of the right-hand pane.
  • In the "Create Partition" window select the following:
    • Size: Don't edit it. If the USB key is 2.0GB total, it should say 1.5GB on the slider.
    • Type: FAT
    • Name: Fedora
    • Do not click the encryption checkbox
    • Press the "Create" button
  • In the "Volumes" diagram, click the white "Free" rectangle agan.
  • Click "Edit Partition" in the lower-left of the right-hand pane.
  • In the "Edit Partition" dialog, click the "Bootable" check box so that there is a checkmark visible.
  • Click 'Apply'
  • Click "Safe Removal" in the upper-right of the right-hand pane.
  • Rinse & repeat for all of your keys.

Making the Keys bootable

  • Stick key in slot
  • In the same directory that your ISO file generated in the "Creating the ISO Image" section is located:
    • sudo umount /dev/sdg1; sudo umount /dev/sdg2; sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --reset-mbr --overlay-size-mb 512 Fedora.iso /dev/sdg2; sync
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: For me, /dev/sdg1 ended up being the 512MB FAT partition; /dev/sdg2 ended up being the 1.5GB OS/appinstall partition. It may be /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2 for you, or the numbers may change. When you stick the key in the drive, run 'dmesg' on the command line, and see what /dev/sd* the key ends up being.
  • Remove the USB Key
  • Plug the USB key back in, try booting off of it. You'll definitely want to test it before creating a whole bunch more. When you boot into the key, make sure all the packages are i686 and not 64-bit! I made this mistake so many times. To check, boot into the key and run "rpm -qa | grep x86_64". If anything comes up, you goofed your image and need to respin it so it's 32-bit.
  • Rinse and repeat these steps to create all the USB keys.

• rinse & repeat

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