Al Gunn

Mountain Range High School
Career and Technology Teacher

I teach or have taught the following classes:
 * Computer Applications
 * Intro to Multimedia
 * Web Design
 * Media Production

How will I introduce Scalable Game Design in my school?
I will be teaching an introduction to multimedia in the fall and a computer applications class in the spring of this upcoming school year. I am planning on using it as the main focus in our computer applications class with the hope that we can get more students interested in taking our computer programming classes. Agentsheets will be the focus of the class and I'll build in some graphics work and google docs in to round the class out a bit.

I also plan on introducing my multimedia students to Agentsheets with a short unit built around Frogger. Once again in the hopes they will either take the computer applications class or sign up for one of our programming classes.

Project Journal
Day 1, Monday:

Loved the whole nouns and verbs activity. In the past when planning out a game I start my kids out with a game description and then as a class we discuss a plan of attack. This is a better way of doing the same thing. I can also leave our lists up on the wall in my room to help them remember what agents they need to create.

My first impressions of Agentsheets are one, that it was easy to get up and running quickly. It took very little time to grasp how the program is set up and the basic way an agent and it's behaviors are created. I like the "If/then" structure of all the commands as it is how I usually approach this kind of thing with my own students. Two, I am glad to see that I can import graphics in from other programs. We do a lot of graphic work in our building and I'd hate not to be able to see some transfer of knowledge.

I have a couple of concerns after one day. I wish it were easier to animate the agents. Once again we do a lot of graphic work in our other tech classes and I'd like to be able to use some of that skill set in the design of student games. I experimented with changing depictions of an agent to create some simple animated events (the turtle swimming) but didn't care for the look. It also seems as though the game bogs down a bit and the action starts to move slower the more agents you have on the screen. Neither of these things are major enough for me not to use the program and I am also aware that I am very much a newbie and my results most likely reflect that.

All in all, it was a good day. Enjoyed the whole experience. Well, maybe not sitting for that long of a period, but everything else was great. I also plan on introducing my multimedia students to Agentsheets with a short unit built around Frogger. Once again in the hopes they will either take the computer applications class or sign up for one of our programming classes.

Day 2, Tuesday:

My brain hurts just a little bit today. Trying to get my head wrapped around the concept of diffusion. I can think of several ways my students could use this idea including the concept for modeling the Zombie Apocalypse using the CDC guidelines. Zombies. Gaming. Who wouldn’t love that. It would have been helpful to practice this concept one more time, perhaps with a more complex behavior using two diffusion behaviors. I am too beat tonight to mess around with it.

When you first presented the push-pull concept, I was hoping someone would pull me out of my brain fog.

As Pearl Jam said so eloquently; "All just breaking like waves""The oceans made me, but who came up with love?""Push me, pull me, push me, or pull me out""Push me, pull me, or pull me out" I think I got it, but I need to work with it a bit to make sure I can apply what you showed us today. I had a student trying to do this in another game program and it was a little too complex for either of us to figure out the correct code. I’m anxious to show him this in the fall so he can create the game he had in his head.

Got me thinking from watching the dynamics of our group today and the varying speeds in which we all were able to write in the new instruction set. Some folks finished quickly. Some took a bit longer. Some were trying to figure out the logic behind the instructions. Some were checking their email. (not me!!!). I think that when I present this, I’ll create a set of instructions that can be referred to from the student’s workspace. Either online or a hard copy. Watching Fred change the screen back and forth for the us made me think I don’t want to work as hard as him. I am old and need to conserve my strength.

Day 3, Wednesday:

The Jeopardy Game was a good review tool. Got me to thinking how and if I might use the same idea in my own classroom. At the moment, I’m thinking of doing a similar review with my students and then follow that up by handing out the cameras and having them film 10 second examples of the different CTPs. Nice way for us to get out of the classroom for a day or two and a way for me to promote another one of our electives, Media Production, at the same time. Another possibility, if I am short on time is to have them find still pictures on the web that demo the same thing.

Day 4, Thursday:

The process of building a simulation based on a story, that Bob modeled today, was excellent. The whole idea of starting with natural language and then pulling out the verbs, nouns and adjectives is very workable. Also fits in with some of our district guidelines in terms of literacy development and ELL support. Helps me kill a few lesson plan birds with one strategic stone. I plan on adapting this method in my own classes and am even thinking I might be able to modify it for use in my media course where there is often a disconnect between the story and the product.

Saying that, this was the toughest day for me. I am still processing how to use Agentsheets and trying to apply it in this manner pushed me to my limits. I kept stumbling over setting up the rules and getting my program to work and didn’t have time to really think about what it or I was doing. This did lead me back to thinking about how to present material in my own classroom from what I observed in our workshop. We were definitely all working at different speeds. Some folks worked right along with Bob. No problem. A few got lost and then had a hard time getting caught back up. (Thank you for the helpers by the way!) I noticed that sometimes, especially when duplicating a rule, it is easy to lose where the instructor is at on the screen. If I didn’t quite finish before moving on, I was stuck until we could ask to see the rules again on the overhead. I saw several folks struggling to read the specifics on screen when it wasn’t zoomed in. Also, I found it difficult to troubleshoot my program and at the same time try to follow what Bob was saying in the front of the room. I needed some quiet time to work. (Similar to the quiet time I need during a nap!) Sometimes, I stopped working so I could listen to him.

These observations led me to the following ideas I might implement:


 * Have all my students use the same graphics while doing a teacher directed activity. It is just one visual cue, but I think a helpful one, to have the student’s screen look like the instructor’s screen.
 * Create a mechanism for student’s to look at all the rules for various agents as needed. This could be done with a hard copy handout or a digital pdf that could be used at the student station.
 * Watch my pacing carefully and stop between steps to make sure students are keeping up and their programs are working. This is a tough one. Cause I know from my own classrooms, that the kids who are keeping up will work ahead if they have the information in front of them. Not sure this is a bad thing though?
 * Allow the opportunity to practice one concept before moving on. Material needs to be chunked in such a way as to allow practice on one method or technique before moving on. I also need to stop talking sometimes and let the students process.
 * Allow natural collaboration to take place. I got help from the folks around me when I got lost. I want to formalize this in my own lab and encourage clusters of students to work together.

My brain is full after today. The meal at Tossa’s was wonderful. I’m not used to being fed as much or as deliciously as the institute has done.Thank you for that!

 Day 5, Friday: Enjoyed the Forest Fire simulation this morning and today I was able to keep up. Either Bob moved a little slower or I am getting smarter. I expect it is Bob moving slower. Will be sharing this idea with a science teacher I am going hiking with this evening.

Made good progress in my plans for next year. I am going introduce a 10 day unit on creating Frogger in Agentsheets in my Multimedia class. Most of these students will be freshmen and the plan is to get them interested in taking the Computer Applications (with a game design emphasis) and/or sign up for our programming classes. In the Computer Applications class, I'll start with Pacman. I usually have about a 10-20% overlap between kids who take both Intro to Multimedia and Computer Applications. So, I figure I'll start with a different game and that way I can keep the kids who already had some exposure interested. Talked this over with several of the other folks attending the Institute and they thought this was a workable plan. I read through the lesson plans and tutorials available on the wiki for both these programs and will be building my own materials based on what I saw. I must say it is nice to start something new with a wealth of teacher materials easily accessible and ready to use. This is not my usual experience when I start to teach something new.

I've created a Google Doc with my plans for next year and will link to it here for anyone who is interested in specifics. We often work via Docs in my department so everyone can comment and make suggestions. I want my department chair and the Computer Programming instructor to have easy access to what I am working on. (I will post another page in the WIKI when I have a finished product).

This has been a great workshop. It has been demanding time wise as I am not used to going quite this long every day combined with a morning and evening commute. While I would have liked to stay and experiment with AgentCubes, I am pretty much worn to mental numbness after five full days. I will be recommending this Institute to several teachers in my district, mainly at the middle schools feeding into high school. We'd love to see kids coming up who have already had some exposure.

Day 6, Saturday:

I slept in this morning and had gentle dreams of little pixelated agents moving randomly amongst the gray brain agents inside my skull.

Contact Information
Al Gunn
 * Mountain Range High School
 * 12500 Huron Street
 * Westminster, Colorado 80234
 * (720) 972-6300
 * [mailto:al.gunn@adams12.org Email]