Miranda Sheh

School
University of Colorado at Boulder BS Computer Science May 2014

How will I introduce Scalable Game Design in my school?
I will show my friends the games that I've made and share with some middle school students that I tutor. I will also help implement AgentSheets at the school that I am assigned.

Videos
These videos show computational thinking patterns that are used in Agent Sheets.  This video shows absorption when the insect is absrobed into the vacuum and disappears. This video also shows generation when the dust comes out from the vacuum. After absorbed,the insect agent is no longer there until it is generated again. Before generated, the dust agent is not there until it comes out of the vacuum. These patterns are used in games like Frogger.

 This video shows collision. This idea mirrors games like PacMan when the PacMan collides with a ghost and dies.

 This video shows scripting, which is when several agents are controlled by another agent that tells the agents where to move and how to move together. This idea is used in games like Space Invaders where the command ship controls the mini ships.

Project Journal
Week 1, Tuesday: Professor Doctor Alex Repenning began the day by giving a definition of computational thinking. He said that it was the "synthesis of human abilities with computer affordances." He also introduced the idea of "project first" teaching where instead of first learning the principles of the topic, students immediately are faced with a problem to solve and learn the concepts as they solve the problem. This seems like a great method for teaching, especially in middle and elementary schools since it is more hands-on. Today, we created a Frogger game and learned about "generating" and "absorbing."

Week 1, Wednesday: Today, Professor Clayton Lewis began the day by saying that computer science is not really about computers. He said that it is about representing ideas and problems with computers. He introduced the Theory of Measurement and the Monty Hall Puzzle. Today we created a Sokoban game with three levels.

Week 1, Thursday: Today we made a PacMan game. My Pacman eats hamburgers and can teleport across the screen by going into the french fries. We learned about diffusion. Many of the concepts in Sokoban were also used in PacMan.

Week 1, Friday: Today we created our own games or worked on making the past games more complicated. I created a fish game where a large fish could blast mini fish that swam towards the big fish. If a mini fish crossed the line where the big fish resided, then the game would be over. The seaweed in the game generated mini fish. There was also a separate agent to blast the seaweed so that it could no longer generate mini fish.

Week 2, Monday: Today we created a forest fire simulation which was very interesting because of the mathematical concepts behind the simulation. Simulations are a very good way to bring real world applications to the game making process of AgentSheets.

Week 2, Tuesday: Today we talked more about debugging and conversational programming. We went through some debugging exercises.

Week 2, Wednesday: Today we worked on creating our own games or simulations. I created a game that has a rectangular window. There is a top piece that shoots out blocks and the blocks change colors depending on the colors of the blocks around it and then there is a guy at the bottom and he can move up through green blocks with the w,a,s,d keys. The generating agent moves left to right with the left and right arrow keys and shoots out the blocks with the space bar. The guy wins when he reaches the top.

Week 2, Thursday: Today we talked about different teaching styles for implementing AgentSheets in schools. We examined guided discovery learning and other concepts. I made a game that is a picture puzzle.

Week 2, Friday: Today we looked at a very early version of AgentCubes and how to make agents through that software. I will be excited to see how AgentCubes comes out as a finished product. We were also introduced to the idea of collaborative programming through a software that allows a team of programmers to program as a team from different locations through web based AgentSheets. This idea is amazing because the programmers can see what their teammates are doing but are also able to work on their own code simultaneously.

Contact Information
[mailto:miranda.sheh@colorado.edu miranda.sheh@colorado.edu]