[squeakland] Re: squeakland Digest, Vol
82, Issue 2
kharness at illinois.edu
kharness at illinois.edu
Tue Feb 2 18:50:15 EST 2010
Hi Cherry,
The pinball game lesson plan has eight lesson topics and each may take 40-70 minutes for students to think, to decide, and to understand all the implications of their game decisions. It is a big project for young students.
Could I suggest instead that you look at Lost in Space: http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?sl=84
It is a smaller project but given the time line you must work with, it might be a good one for them. It will take about 2- 2 1/2 hours total. The lesson plan is the at the bottom of the page that the link opens.
Leap Frog, http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?sl=841 is another small project and kids enjoy it too. The frog catches flies; well, actually there is a test that says if the frog is over the fly, the fly hides. All kinds of possibilities with that, aren't there.
Regards,
Kathleen
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 15:13:44 -0800
>From: Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org>
>Subject: Re: [squeakland] Re: squeakland Digest, Vol 82, Issue 2
>To: kharness at illinois.edu
>Cc: Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com>, squeakland <squeakland at squeakland.org>
>
> Hi Kathleen,
>
> We were actually discussing your pinball project
> yesterday (I am now having problems with the forum
> site and can't post on the squeakland mailing list.
> My account's inactive all of a sudden). How long
> does it take your kids to complete the pinball
> project? I only have 2 more classes on this session
> (3 hrs total). A completed maze for my 5th graders
> students took 3 classes.
> Thanks!
> Cherry
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 4:30 AM,
> <kharness at illinois.edu> wrote:
>
> Steve,
> I don't know if you have had time to look at the
> projects on the EtoysIllinois web site.
> www.EtoysIllinois.org There are two collections of
> projects with lesson plans you may be interested
> in seeing. CS4K5 has a pinball game project/lesson
> as well as lessons for several other easy games
> and puzzles that I have used with young students.
> The dot to dot game is very easy and children
> enjoy making it and playing it long after the
> lesson is done. The Sudoku puzzles are also a
> project that has lasting interest.
>
> You can see dozens of student examples of mazes,
> sudoku, tetrominoes, puzzles, and races that are
> tagged in the collection. There are student's
> books about science topics they were studying. The
> Counting Books were written by students to teach
> their younger brothers and sisters how to count
> and make delightful projects where students can
> apply the Etoys knowledge they have to meet the
> needs of younger students. There are over 800
> projects that were made by students in the site
> that can be used as they are or can be taken apart
> to see how they work. None of the scripts are
> locked and I encourage students to take projects
> apart to learn from them.
>
> The other set of lesson plans accompany the K-5
> Technology Passport projects. Click on a project
> to select it and the lesson materials will be a
> link in the new window. These projects are aligned
> with grade level core curriculum standards. I live
> in Illinois and so used Illinois standards which
> closely follow the ones developed by NCTM, NSTA,
> NETS, and NCTM.
>
> Many of Avigail Snir's projects include teaching
> materials within the project either in a book or a
> flap. If you use the Search tool in the site, her
> projects will be listed.
> Regards,
> Kathleen
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 01:58:55 -0500
> >From: Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com>
> >Subject: [squeakland] Re: squeakland Digest, Vol
> 82, Issue 2
> >To: Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org>
> >Cc: squeakland <squeakland at squeakland.org>
> >
> > Whichever motivates them most.
> >
> > Pinball, hmmm great idea. Would appreciate
> it if
> > you could share lesson plans/projects.
> >
> > Stephen
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 1:55 AM, Cherry
> Withers
> > <cwithers at ekindling.org> wrote:
> >
> > Wow! Thanks everyone! hmmnn...weird that I
> didn't
> > get Bert and Scott's reply in my in-box
> nor is it
> > indicated as a replies in the Squeakland
> community
> > forum index.
> >
> > Steve the project and the step-by-step
> information
> > are most helpful! Thank you! My students
> are
> > basically done with their maze games but
> I'm
> > debating whether to introduce this added
> > complexity by request from a couple of
> them or
> > move on and teach a pinball game for the
> last two
> > sessions of my class.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Cherry
> > On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Steve
> Thomas
> > <sthomas1 at gosargon.com> wrote:
> >
> > Cherry,
> >
> > Attached is a Etoys Project (still in
> progress)
> > that demonstrates the same thing Scott
> had
> > suggested along with some questions and
> Teacher
> > notes (this is very rough and still
> needs a lot
> > of work, but good enough so that you
> should get
> > the idea.
> >
> > Some thoughts on teaching two player
> game
> > creation:
> > * They will notice problems when one
> child
> > holds down their control key and
> the other
> > just keeps "tapping" thier
> control keys, the
> > child who taps will win. See if
> you can
> > observe this and ask the kids why
> "Cherry"
> > always wins? What is she doing
> differently?
> > Hopefully they will notice the
> tapping vs
> > holding down the key, if not you
> can help
> > them make that observation. Then
> ask why
> > that matters? How do they think
> the computer
> > works? How and when does the
> keyboard send
> > signals to indicate which key is
> being
> > input? The kids may come up with
> two
> > answers: 1) it sends a signal as
> long as the
> > key is held down 2) it sends a
> signal each
> > time the key is held down. IF you
> are lucky
> > enough to get both answers, ask:
> How can we
> > test which method the keyboards
> use? What
> > can you observe and what results
> would you
> > expect if it only sends the
> signal one time
> > when a key is pressed? What would
> you
> > observe and what would you expect
> the
> > results to be if it kept sending
> signals
> > constantly as long as a key was
> held down?
> > Then: "Well your scientists, go
> forth and
> > test your hypotheses!"
> > * If it is a racing game, most kids
> I have
> > seen implement with basic go
> forward and go
> > backward and don't program in
> acceleration
> > and "braking". You may want to
> ask them the
> > questions on page 5 of the
> attached project
> > to suggest they try acceleration
> and
> > braking.
> > * Rather than showing them the
> project you may
> > want to try questioning them into
> it (Note:
> > this may not be easy I have tried
> and not
> > always succeeded with this one)
> some
> > thoughts on questions and things
> you can
> > show:
> > * Start by
> mentioning/showing them about
> > variables, then ask: How
> can we use a
> > variable to capture the
> direction
> > someone wants to go in?
> How many
> > variables will we need.
> > * Then ask: How can you use
> that variable
> > you have just defined in
> a script to
> > control the car's
> movement?
> > * Note: the method I showed in the
> attached
> > project is probably not the
> method the kids
> > will use, they most likely will
> do a group
> > of tests on the variable and move
> > accordingly.
> > * You can also ask what else a
> variable can be
> > used for in a games (as part of
> > brainstorming) ex: score, # of
> lives a
> > player has left, timer (FYI, to
> implement a
> > timer, use the tick rate and a
> variable that
> > counts up to track how long
> something takes
> > or counts down if they only have
> so long to
> > complete a task).
> > Lastly I would love it if you could
> share your
> > observations on the two player game
> creation and
> > any interesting projects the kids might
> create.
> >
> > Stephen
> >
> > Message: 2
> >
> > Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:35:06
> -0500
> > From: "CherryW"
> > <squeakland-forum at squeakland.org>
> > Subject: [squeakland] How to create
> a
> > multi-player game
> > To: squeakland at squeakland.org
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <1265081706.m2f.19304 at squeakland.org/forums>
> > Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > My students are asking if it's
> possible to
> > have multiple players in their
> games. They've
> > programmed ObjectA and ObjectB to
> each have
> > different sets of keyboard inputs.
> The problem
> > is pressing keyboard inputs for
> ObjectA stops
> > the movement of ObjectB and vice
> versa. Anyway
> > to do bypass this problem?
> >
> > Thank you!
> > ---Cherry
> >
> > -------------------- m2f
> --------------------
> >
> > (from forum)
> >
> http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19304#19304
> >
> > -------------------- m2f
> --------------------
> >
> > -------------- next part
> --------------
> > An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> > URL:
> >
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> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 20:43:50 -0800
> > From: Bert Freudenberg
> <bert at freudenbergs.de>
> > Subject: Re: [squeakland] How to
> create a
> > multi-player game
> > To: squeakland at squeakland.org
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <31F10548-45F0-4DBF-9392-332BE66E8B7B at freudenbergs.de>
> > Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset=us-ascii
> >
> > On 01.02.2010, at 19:35, CherryW
> wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > My students are asking if it's
> possible to
> > have multiple players in their
> games. They've
> > programmed ObjectA and ObjectB to
> each have
> > different sets of keyboard inputs.
> The problem
> > is pressing keyboard inputs for
> ObjectA stops
> > the movement of ObjectB and vice
> versa. Anyway
> > to do bypass this problem?
> > >
> > > Thank you!
> > > ---Cherry
> >
> > Not easily. Maybe one player can use
> the
> > keyboard and another one a joystick?
> >
> > A more general solution would be
> this:
> >
> http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-331
> >
> > - Bert -
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 21:09:31 -0800
> > From: Scott Wallace
> > <scott.wallace at squeakland.org>
> > Subject: Re: [squeakland] How to
> create a
> > multi-player game
> > To: squeakland at squeakland.org
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <DF73943D-D5FE-4837-AEF1-CF40C693E745 at squeakland.org>
> > Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > On Feb 1, 2010, at 7:35 PM, CherryW
> wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > My students are asking if it's
> possible to
> > have multiple players in their
> games. They've
> > programmed ObjectA and ObjectB to
> each have
> > different sets of keyboard inputs.
> The problem
> > is pressing keyboard inputs for
> ObjectA stops
> > the movement of ObjectB and vice
> versa. Anyway
> > to do bypass this problem?
> > >
> > > Thank you!
> > > ---Cherry
> >
> > Hi, Cherry,
> >
> > One way is to have each an object's
> behavior
> > governed not directly by "world's
> last
> > keystroke" but rather by its own
> private
> > variable telling it what "state" it
> is in, and
> > hence what it should do. This can
> be
> > accomplished by devoting one ticking
> script in
> > each object to maintaing the
> object's "state";
> > this script can "watch" the world's
> last
> > keystroke, and when it sees a
> keystroke that
> > means something to it, it sets the
> > corresponding state in the object's
> state
> > variable, whereas when it sees
> keystrokes
> > intended to control different
> objects, it
> > ignores them; and devoting a second,
> separate,
> > ticking script in each object to
> carrying out
> > the action represented by the
> current "state".
> >
> > The attached project provides a
> simple
> > illustration of this. It allows
> two objects
> > to be navigated from the keyboard.
> Each
> > object is looking for a different
> set of keys.
> >
> > A diamond-shaped cluster of four
> keys at the
> > left edge of the keyboard is used to
> control
> > Red:
> >
> > a rotate counterclockwise
> > s rotate clockwise
> > w go forward
> > z go backward
> >
> > A second diamond-shaped cluster of
> four keys
> > further to the right is used to
> control Blue:
> >
> > j rotate counterclockwise
> > k rotate clockwise
> > i go forward
> > m go backward
> >
> > HTH...
> >
> > -- Scott
> >
> > -------------- next part
> --------------
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> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> >
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> > squeakland at squeakland.org
> >
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> >
> > End of squeakland Digest, Vol 82,
> Issue 2
> >
> *****************************************
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