Dana Lord

School
Computer Teacher, Carson Middle School

How will I introduce Scalable Game Design in my school?
I will teach an introductory project during each semester to encourage critical thinking and excitement about the game design course that is available at our school. My instructional goals will be to have my students be able to think critically and problem solve. I am going to use the Frogger lesson plans that are available on the wiki as well as the resources available from my colleague that has already taught the program before.

Unit Sequence:

Day 1 - Overview, Survey, Bridge Program, Explore Frogger game, Learn how to create an agent, Create a new worksheet, Save a worksheet

Day 2 - Create new agents, Movement of agents from left to right, Introduce generation and absorption

Day 3 - Introduce collision, Duplicate agent with modifications,

Project Journal: 2013
Day 1, Monday: I’m going to have to remember that only the top layer of the worksheet is active during the game. How am I going to assess student progress/growth throughout the course? It is very important to follow incremental development and test frequently and test often in order to help the students problem solve their own issues. “Don’t destroy your working model.” I will also need to develop some ways to scaffold the lesson for my advanced students and the students that need more guidance.

Day 2, Tuesday: I was feeling pretty good about where I was with the frogger game yesterday, but by this morning I already forgot many of the commands. This is definitely going to take some practice so that I don’t forget how to do the various commands. I’m also going to accept that my students will quickly become the experts in my classroom. :)

Day 3, Wednesday: Computational Thinking Videos: http://youtu.be/88svMqo3ZEk Princess Bride scene when they are rolling down the hill is an example of collision when she shoves him down the hill and when they connect with the ground each time, scripting when the horses are following each other on the ridge and when she follows him down the hill. http://youtu.be/-3ODe9mqoDE In the Tron bike scene the motorcycles are generating a line after them and when they collide to generate an explosion. There is a collision when the two bikes intersect.

Day 4, Thursday: I really enjoyed learning how to collect the data from the simulation and then export the data to Excel. I can see the direct application to math and science using these simulations and cannot wait to show this to the science teacher on my team. I want a quick reference tool that I can access when I want to make an agent perform a certain action.

Day 5, Friday: I am having a difficult time finding what I want on the wiki. I love having access to the site and I think I’ll get better at managing where things are located with time, but I would really like to click on “Lesson Plans” under a certain module and all of the lessons plans that have been uploaded would come up together. I enjoyed seeing the simulations that people came up with and hope that these are made available on the arcade at some point.

Day 6, Saturday:

Contact Information

 * [mailto:dlord@ffc8.org Email]