UNIT 2 • FREE

This Is Me In Tech

Use CSS to create your digital identity profile, a styled webpage that expresses who you are, where you come from, and what you'll build with technology.

⏱️ 7 Stages
📱 Beginner
🎯 45–60 min per stage
🎨 CSS Basics

What You'll Learn

In Unit 1, you built the structure of a webpage with HTML. In this unit, you'll make it look the way you want, using CSS to control colors, fonts, layout, and spacing. You'll also think about what it means to be a Native youth in tech and what you want to build for your community. The biggest new concept: CSS, the language that tells the browser how every element should look, where it should sit, and how it should respond to the visitor.

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to say "I can..."

  • Explain what CSS is and how it connects to HTML
  • Write a CSS rule using selectors, properties, and values
  • Style a webpage's background color, font, and header
  • Use flexbox to arrange cards side by side on a page
  • Control an image's size and fit inside a box using object-fit
  • Describe at least two ways technology can serve my community
  • Create a personal profile page that reflects my identity and goals

What You'll Build

You'll create a styled "This Is Me In Tech" profile page with three cards: your future in tech, what you'll build when you learn to code, and how you'll use technology to help your community. The final page uses real CSS to control every color, font, and layout choice.

The 7 Stages

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7
Start Stage 1 →

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Sources

All cultural and identity-related content in this unit is grounded in reputable sources. We prioritize Native-led organizations, advocacy groups, and research that centers the experiences and futures of Native youth in technology. If you are an educator or student who wants to explore further, each source below is a trustworthy starting point.

Native-Led Organizations & Advocacy

Research & Data on Native Youth in Tech

Identity & Community in Technology

Educational Standards

This unit aligns with national computer science and technology standards as well as state-level media arts and social studies standards. Select your state below to see the relevant standards for your classroom.

  • OSEU.SS.C.1, Identity and Cultural Expression (All Grades): Students will understand the role of cultural identity in shaping how Indigenous peoples engage with the world, including contemporary spaces like technology and digital media. (The profile page students build is not an abstract design exercise. It is a structured act of self-representation: a Native student deciding how they want to exist in a digital space, what technology means for their future, and how their heritage informs what they will build. The unit holds that space intentionally, asking students to think about identity before they think about CSS.)
  • OSEU.ELA.W.1, Purposeful Writing for a Real Audience (All Grades): Students will produce clear and purposeful writing appropriate to task, audience, and context. (Each of the three profile cards students build — future in tech, what I will build, how I will use technology for my community — requires original authored text published on a live webpage. These are not fill-in-the-blank prompts. Students write to a real audience, which naturally pushes toward more considered, intentional language about identity, goals, and community responsibility.)
  • CSTA 2-IC-20 (Grades 6-8): Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people's everyday activities and career options. (Students explore what it means to be Native and pursuing a future in tech, including research into current representation gaps and the potential impact of Native coders on their communities.)
  • ISTE 1.1, Empowered Learner: Articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them, and reflect on the learning process to improve outcomes. (The "This Is Me In Tech" profile page is a structured act of goal-setting: students define what they want to build, how they'll use technology for community, and where they see their future in computing.)
  • ISTE 1.6, Creative Communicator: Communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using platforms, tools, formats, and digital media appropriate to their goals. (Students design and publish a styled personal profile page that expresses their identity, goals, and community vision, their first fully designed digital presence.)
  • MN ELA 6.3.3.2 / 7.3.3.2 / 8.3.3.2 (Grades 6, 7, 8): Create and share a multimedia or digital communication, choosing tools to meet the task, purpose, and audience, demonstrating understanding of digital footprint. (Students publish a styled personal profile page, making intentional decisions about color, typography, and layout to communicate their identity and goals to a real audience.)
  • MN Media Arts 2.8.2.3.1 (Grade 8): Create media artworks using transdisciplinary or transmedia production to express emotion and meaning, including simple web page design considering positioning with multimodal perception. (Students add CSS to an HTML page for the first time, making style decisions that transform raw text into a visually expressive digital profile: their own.)
  • MN Media Arts 2.6.5.10.1 / 2.7.5.10.1 / 2.8.5.10.1 (Grades 6, 7, 8): Demonstrate an understanding that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities. (Students bring their own cultural identity and community connection into a digital medium, exploring how technology can be a space for Indigenous self-expression.)
  • ND CS 6.DD.2 / 7.DD.2 / 8.DD.2 (Grades 6-8): Create an algorithm to solve a problem using multiple coding patterns, including loops, conditionals, functions, or variables. (CSS rules follow an algorithmic structure: select an element, define a property, set a value. Students write these rules in sequence to transform a plain HTML page into a styled digital identity.)
  • ND CS 6.S.1 / 7.S.1 / 8.S.1 (Grades 6-8): Examine the positive and negative impacts of technology on how people live, work, and interact, including considerations of equitable access. (Students reflect on the current state of Native representation in tech and what access to coding education could mean for their community and for their own career futures.)
  • ND Indigenous Language Standard 2.1 (All Grades): Learners investigate, explain, and reflect on the relationship of practices to the customs, traditions, and perspectives of the cultures studied. (Students reflect on their own identity, heritage, and community values as they design a profile that communicates who they are in a digital space.)
  • ND Indigenous Language Standard 5.3 (All Grades): Learners value and promote Indigenous, heritage, and native languages and show interest in efforts to preserve and revitalize those that are endangered through active engagement in language and cultural activities. (A "This Is Me In Tech" profile that centers Indigenous identity is an act of cultural visibility: students choose to bring their heritage into the tools they are building.)
  • OSEU Standard 5.2 (All Grades): Demonstrate respect for self and others, including understanding self-determination and the role of culture in shaping identity. (The profile page is a direct act of self-determination: students choose how to represent themselves, their goals, and their community in a digital space, with full creative ownership over the result.)
  • OSEU Standard 1.3 (All Grades): Describe traditional and contemporary Oceti Sakowin perspectives on communal stewardship, including responsibilities to land, community, and future generations. (Students are prompted to define how they will use technology to help their community, directly engaging the concept of communal responsibility in a contemporary tech context.)
  • SD CS 6-8.AP.01 (Grades 6-8): Create a program that uses variables to store and modify data. (CSS properties allow students to control values across a page: changing a color or font in one rule updates every matching element. This introduces the concept of variables before students encounter JavaScript.)
  • SD CS 6-8.IC.01 (Grades 6-8): Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people's everyday activities and career options in South Dakota and the world, as well as urban, rural, and reservation communities. (Students explore the gap between Native representation in the tech industry and the potential impact Native coders could have on reservation communities, grounding the career conversation in real data.)