Day 3

Design Brief

10. Write a short statement of what you are going to make, why you are going to make it, and for whom you are making it. For my project I am going to create an arcade game that explains the design cycle. Sixth graders will be able to play my game to better understand the Design Cycle.

Formulate a Design Specification

11. What are the requirements for this assignment? The requirements for this assignment is that it must help sixth graders learn the Design Cycle.

12. What are the limitations you have with this assignment? 

13. How will you "test" your presentation? I will test my project by getting sixth graders the game then giving them a test to determine how much they have learned.

Test

         I will let the sixth graders play the game for awhile then I will give them the test. The test will contain 10 questions about the Design Cycle. I will then perform the test on another group of students, the grades the students get will determine my success. I will succed in my taskm if atleast 80% of the students recieve a 70 on their test.

3 Arcade Game Designs

          Design #1- My first design will be a game called Manic Miner. In this game the player takes on the role of a miner trying to escape from the various levels. The rules and controls of this game are simple, all you have to do is get correct answers to unlock the key. After the player unlocks the he or she must then jump into the the toilet which serves as an exit from the level. This game would prove to be a challenge to the players and they would continue to play and without them knowing, learning will happen.

          Design #2- The game called Wordshoot will be my second possible choice. The game is simple all the player has to do is shot the answer that matches the question at the bottom. This game is simple but where is the challenge needed to keep the player entertained? The challenge is that the player will have only 20 shots and 30 seconds to finish each level of the game, and the player must also deal with the fact that the answers get progressively harder to shoot. This game is not as entertaining as Manic Miner, but it is more challenging than it.

          Design#3- My final design will be a game called Cannonball Fun. This game is more difficult than the last two designs. Here the player will have to use the arrow keys to position the cannon where you want the ball to land, then use the space bar to build the cannonball's velocity, then the player must let go of the space bar and hope that they calculated the right velocity. The object of the game is ti make the cannonballs land on the right answers to the questions shown at the bottom. The player receives an extra ball when answer is correct and loses when out of cannonballs. The game rates very low on a sixth graders entertainment scale and might prove to be more challenging than they are comfortable with.
           After playing and rating the three designs I have chosen to use Design #1. I chose this design because Manic Miner is the most entertaining of the three and I think that this is the game that will help the kids learn the Design Cycle better. While testing this on my sixth grade cousins they said that they really learned from the sample questions that I placed. They have retained the knowledge for about 2 weeks now! The other designs were just to challenging or my cousins didn't learn much from them

For my project I decided to create an arcade game.I went to Mrs. Hinojosa's blog and clicked on a link that took me to http://www.classtools.net. Creating a game on the site was easy and I learned that there were many different game templates that I could use. I created some sample games and after playing I was pretty sure that I learned something. I read that games created on the site can even be hosted on my blog. The other game creator that I compared this to was http://www.purposegames.com. What I liked about this site was that games created can be used by other students if set to public. I played other public games and found that these games can be created to teach you almost anything.
       I decided to use http://www.classtools.net.  for my project because my game can be easily accessed. The games at Purpose Games helped but the games maybe to hard to access for these sixth graders.

ClassTools

Measurement	Score (1-5)
Simplicity	5
Entertainment	5
Availability	3
Themes	3
Total	16

     Simplicity- I rated ClassTools with a 5 for simplicity. I gave it this rating because the site could be used by even amateur game creators, I believe that the sixth graders will easily understand this. The controls for the games are so simple, the player only has to use the arrow keys to make it function. The instructions for the game are very simple, get the questions right to advance to the next level. Creating games is so simple that I created one to test on some kids.

      Entertainment- The rating for entertainment is decided on how entertaining this would be for the kids. I created a game for testing on my cousins, and me. The grades of my cousins ranged from fifth grade to ninth grade, but most of them are fifth and sixth. After a bit of playing they said that they would give the game an average of 5 on entertainment.

       Availability- The rating for availability is very low since the kid must have Internet to access the game. Many children don't have an Internet connection, many don't even have computer at home. The only place that these children can play the game is here at school. Even if they do have an Internet connection they need to know how to get on my blog to play, because that is where the game will be based.

       Themes- ClassTools has a disgustingly low selection of game themes. The site has in total about 4-6 themes that a creator can choose from. On the bright side the themes that are available will attract the kids to play, have fun, and most importantly learn. There are some themes though that will actually frustrate the players, and/or repel the potential players.

       Total Score- After adding all of the scores ClassTools got a total score of 16. More than half of these points came from the entertainment and simplicity sections.

Area of Interaction: Community and Service , Approaches to Learning & Human Ingenuity

Significant Concept: Design Cycle can be used to solve problems

Unit Question: How can my learning help my community? How do I make Sound Choices?

INVESTIGATE: (Write in complete sentences) Identify the Problem

1. What is the problem you need to solve? Explain to a 6^th grader what the design cycle is all about by creating a presentation. (3d, PPT, movie, game, Poster)

2. How does the Design Cycle apply to the real world?

3. How will this project serve my community?

4. How can my learning help my community?

5. How do we live in relation to each other?

6. How does this help others?

7. What are the requirements for this assignment?

8. What is the Design Cycle?

REFLECT on your learning.

Day 2

9. Spend one day experimenting with DESIGN CYCLE your presentation. List five things your learned about the Design Cycle:

Day 3

Design Brief

10. Write a short statement of what you are going to make, why you are going to make it, and for whom you are making it. For my project I am going to create an arcade game that explains the design cycle. Sixth graders will be able to play my game to better understand the Design Cycle.

Formulate a Design Specification

11. What are the requirements for this assignment?

12. What are the limitations you have with this assignment?

13. How will you "test" your presentation? I will test my project by getting sixth graders the game then giving them a test to determine how much they have learned.

REFLECT ON YOUR LEARNING

PLAN:

14. Brainstorm ideas. Use the chart below

IB Brainstorming Chart .pdf found in schoology under “materials”& then files

15. What idea did you choose to demonstrate the design cycle and why did you choose it?

16. Does your idea meet all of the requirements?

17. Use the story board paper below to plan your presentation.  Include how many levels you will have, what will be on each level, how will you include teaching skills to young students, and what will your questions be about.

story board.pdf found in schoology under “materials” & then files.

18. Explain how you will use your time to get your project finished in 12 days:

REFLECT on your learning

EVALUATE:

20. How could you improve your presentation?

21. Does your presentation meet all of the requirements?

22. Share your presentation with at least 2-8^th, 3-9^th, 4-10^th+ friends. What did he/she like about your presentation?

23. Reflect on all the steps of the Design Cycle. What did you do well? What do you need to improve?

24. Were you responsible in using the software, Internet, pictures, and computer?

25. How can my learning help my community?

26. What grade do you deserve on this project? (1 - 6)

ATTITUDE:

27. Reflect on your attitude on each step of the Design Cycle. Did you completely answer each step without complaining, being a whiny baby, or saying "it's too hard". Explain your answer:

28. What grade do you deserve on your attitude? (1 - 6)