Your Mission (Part I): Do They Qualify?
Video: 3-9 Minutes. Protip: You can watch YouTube videos at more than 1X speed.
Work: ~1.5 Hours
I realize I didn't actually tell you how the story ended. Never fear, the court saw the error of their ways and started following the rules. It's worth noting, however, that this was a particularly insidious mistake because it occurred before someone was assigned an attorney while also effecting that choice.
You should forgo doing any additional research beyond the 50-state survey. Note: this contradicts what I said above. That is, you can take the 50-state survey as the authoritative statement on indigency for your jurisdiction. Also, you should spend no more than an hour working on your flowchart. Consider this an MVP. We'll have a chance to improve it later. Seriously, do NOT spend more than an hour making your flowchart!!!!!!
That being said, here's the this spreadsheet and adding your github username to a row.
Once you have created a flowchart, take a picture with your phone (if you drew it on paper, a white board, or the like) or a screenshot/download (if you used a drawing program). Upload your flowchart to your ctl GitHub repo and the name "indigency_flowchart_v1", the file extension doesn't matter, but .png, .jpg, or .pdf are preferred. Check to make sure that you can see your flowchart at the appropriate URL. For example:
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_flowchart_v1.png
When building your interview, be sure to include a variation of our disclaimer.
Title: Indigency "Flowchart"
Author: [your name]
Before: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://suffolklitlab.org/howto/qna/style/style.css">
<div id="icon" style="background-size: 110px 99px;background-image: url('https://suffolklitlab.org/howto/qna/images/maxheadroom.gif');"></div>
<h2 style="text-align:center;">Indigency "Flowchart"</h2>
<p><b>This is a <a href="https://www.codingthelaw.org/level/2/#mission_p1">class project</a>. You should not rely on it as a source of legal information!</b></p>
<p>Answer the following questions to see if you qualify for appointed counsel in [insert state name].</p>
Once you have finished your QnA interview, upload both the source code and HTML output to:
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_v1.txt and
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_v1.html respectively.
For your convenience, here's the persona info for your simulated user testing. As you work through a persona, externalize your inner monolog. As you watch, be sure to capture what is and isn’t working well.
- 38 yo single parent of 3, earning $25,000 a year before taxes, charged with a felony.
- 17 yo, living at home with two parents and two siblings who earn $44,000 a year before taxes, charged with a misdemeanor.
- 20 yo college student living away from home. Their parents, however, earn $120,000 annually before taxes, and the student is charged with a misdemeanor.
- 26 yo living with romantic partner and 2 children. They earn $18,000 annually and their partner earns $20,000. They are charged with a felony.
- Same as above, but the felony is an A&B against the partner.
Knowledge Base
Everyone comes to this adventure with a different background. So this section is designed to be a menu of sorts. If you already know a topic well, you can skip the relevant material. Just answer the questions below, and section(s) will disappear accordingly. That being said, if a section doesn't disappear, you should do it. Any time you save skipping a topic, however, should be spent working on your final project or reading ahead in either Weapons of Math Destruction or How Not to Be Wrong. FYI, we will be reading all of Weapons of Math Destruction and all but parts III and V of How Not to Be Wrong.
All of that being said, let's see if we can pare things down.
Do you feel comfortable writing introductory JavaScript?
You've gained roughly 30 minutes by dropping a video introduction to JavaScript. FWIW, you're going to be asked to create a QnA interview with JavaScript functions at the end of this Level. If you find yourself with questions, change this answer to unhide the JavaScript introduction.
Self-Reflection and Logging Your Work
~20 min
As we do at the end of every level, we ask that you take a few minutes to reflect on how things are going. I've also included a set of reading questions to queue things up for our synchronous discussion. Your answers will be shared with me and it will let me know that I can look for any project work you may have posted to GitHub. That being said, you've almost completed Level 2. Tell me how it's going by completing the form linked below.
Note: Any work you do below, to the extent that it is logged, will be logged in level 3.
Your Mission (Part II): Do They Qualify?
Video: 8-25 Minutes. Protip: You can watch YouTube videos at more than 1X speed.
Work: ~30 Minutes
Here's the MA Indigency Calculator from the video above, plus the example interviews: What Drink?;
The Ultimate Question; and
Magic 8 Ball (bonus example).
Once you have created a new flowchart, take a picture with your phone (if you drew it on paper, a white board, or the like) or a screenshot/download (if you used a drawing program). Upload your flowchart to your ctl GitHub repo and the name "indigency_flowchart_v2", the file extension doesn't matter, but .png, .jpg, or .pdf are preferred. Check to make sure that you can see your flowchart at the appropriate URL. For example:
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_flowchart_v2.png
Note that this file's name should include the suffix _v2.
Synchronous Meet Up, AKA our Class Time
September 11, 2023 @ 4pm Eastern
If you're an enrolled student, we'll be meeting in Sargent Hall Room 305 on Monday September 11th at 4pm. If you're not an enrolled student, I'm afraid you can't join us.
We will use this time to: (1) troubleshoot any issues folks might have had working through the knowledge base; (2) start work on the second part of your mission; and (3) discuss the readings.
Stretch Goal: Split your QnA and any JavaScript function(s) into separate files, with the QnA referencing a .js file (e.g., including the following in your “Before” tag <script src="https://[your username].github.io/ctl/functions.js"></script>). This allows for the sharing of a single set of functions across different QnAs. So if they need to change (like when the guidelines get updated), there’s only one place to make that change. See HTML <script> src Attribute.
When building your interview, be sure to include a variation of our disclaimer.
Title: Indigency "Flowchart"
Author: [your name]
Before: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://suffolklitlab.org/howto/qna/style/style.css">
<div id="icon" style="background-size: 110px 99px;background-image: url('https://suffolklitlab.org/howto/qna/images/maxheadroom.gif');"></div>
<h2 style="text-align:center;">Indigency "Flowchart"</h2>
<p><b>This is a <a href="https://www.codingthelaw.org/level/2/#mission_p1">class project</a>. You should not rely on it as a source of legal information!</b></p>
<p>Answer the following questions to see if you qualify for appointed counsel in [insert state name].</p>
Once you have finished your QnA interview, upload both the source code and HTML output to:
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_v2.txt and
https://[your username].github.io/ctl/indigency_v2.html respectively.
Note that these bare the suffix _v2.
† Time estimates are just that—estimates. The assumptions used to calculate reading time are as follows: 48 pages is assumed to take roughly an hour to read. When working with non paginated texts, it is assumed that a page is roughly equal to 250 words. Videos assume both 3X and 1X viewing. Estimates for coding are based on past experience. Each level should include about 6 hours and 40 min of work.