Web Challenge 2011 Write up D-Programmers

Web Challenge 2011 Write Up D-Programmers

Tristan Derloshon Colorful Numbers

Matthew Singletary

Planning Phase:

Target Learning Topic:

The STEM area that we have chosen is in Mathematics. We chose this topic because for a lot of people math is a hard, complicated subject to get into. We figured that if we could create a learning application directed to math, it would help people grasp the concepts of Mathematics.

Target Audience and Level:

We have created a mathematics game solely directed to the younger audience. We decided on this because, at a younger age it is very important to start a strong foundation on learning. Since math can be a hard subject to grasp, we decided that we could help create a fun, strong foundation by creating a fun game for children to play. Specifically, the game is targeted for children in the first and second grades. Generally children in these grades start to learn the fundamentals of math.

Learning Goals:

In our game the learning goals would be to teach simple addition and subtraction problems, for the students to practice and better improve their mathematic skills.

How will the Application determine if students have reached goals:

In the game the difficulty of each problem increases every level. At the end of the game the students score will be displayed. When a final score has been reached, the student can then call a teacher to record their score. For example, if the score is 5 out of 20 the student would obviously need more practice. Although if a student’s score is 18 out of 20 the student would most likely not need as much practice and could move on to a higher level of math.

Lessons Learned throughout Planning Phase:

Some of the things that we have learned throughout our planning phase are that kids love to be on the computer and play games. Games that attract kids are games that have a lot of color, movement, and excitement. As you can see on the PBS Kids website there is a vast amount of colors and interaction. We would like to incorporate the many different colors into our game as well.

Constructing Phase:

Requirements Analysis and Definition:

The principle goal of our game is to better help younger students (1st and 2nd grade students) in the subject of Math with simple addition and subtraction equations. It is very important at a young age to learn simple Math because Math is a subject that will always build upon itself, and without a good concept of basic Math, that is learned while you are young, it makes Math very difficult later on in a student’s education.

Application Tools Used:

Our main program that we used to create our application is Scratch Version 1.4. Scratch is a basic programming program that can be used to create games, simulations, stories, and animations. We decided to make a game on Scratch because it is a simple way to create an educational game. It is also free of cost and can be downloaded from the Scratch Website. Scratch is also downloaded on our school computers making it easy to transfer files from our house to school. This way we can work on out project while in school and also work on out project while out of school.

Basically we only used this one program to create our application. The new program that we learned to use is Scratch. Both my partner and I have never used Scratch before and we thought that it would be neat to enter in a game, and learn to use a new program all at the same time.

Lessons learned throughout the Constructing Phase:

The main lesson that we learned throughout Constructing Phase is that it is extremely hard to learn a new program while constructing a game. The reason we that this was difficult is because we would construct a part of the game, and then later on in the game we would discover something new that you could do to improve the game. When we figured out how to improve the game we would have to go through all of our scripts and modify everything, which takes forever. We also greatly improved our knowledge about Scratch and how to better navigate through the program.

Testing Phase

Testing Methodology and Results:

After we completed the construction of the game, our team thoroughly inspected the game. We first started by playing the game over and over again. We would find many errors in the game, and different ways to improve our application. As soon as we would find an error it would either be a simple fix or a huge mess-up in the scripts. We also would check the game for major errors while creating the game.

When we were finally finished with the fixing and de-bugging of the game we tried testing it on 1st graders. We let our little sister, who is in the 1st grade, play the game and she really enjoyed it. We also let a couple neighbors and family friends play the game. Everyone enjoyed the game. The game was also at the correct difficulty for the students. The students did not absolutely fail the game, although they did not get a perfect score.

Lessons Learned During Testing Phase:

We learned that if we would have really been paying attention while we were creating the game that it would have been much easier to fix the games in the end. Also when we presented our games to students they would tell us different things that should be improved and also things that could be changed and/or taken out.

Implementation Phase

Specific Instructions:

For the most part all of the instructions on playing the game are included in the Project Notes section of the Scratch game.

Special Instructions:

While students play the game, teachers can monitor the students while they are playing the game. When the students are finished playing the game, they can raise their hand prompting a teacher to come over to their computer to record their score.

How is your application more engaging:

Our application is more engaging to students because kids would rather be playing a game on the computer then to be sitting in a classroom with a teacher assigning them a quiz or lecturing them. With this game, it will make it easier to quiz children on their knowledge of math, while letting the ch8ildren have a fun, exciting way to share their knowledge.

Budget:

Since Scratch was available to us at school, there was no cost at all. Also Scratch is available for a free download at http://www.scratch.mit.edu.

Lessons Learned Throughout Implementation Phase:

Some of the lessons learned throughout the Implementation Phase is that giving specific instructions on how to play your game is important. Also that kids would much rather play a game than being quizzed or lectured.

Overall Lessons:

Some of the lessons learned overall throughout the designing of our game are that we learned to use a new program which we could use later on to do more projects like this. We also learned about how kids like to learn and how they enjoy playing on the computer. If we had to do anything over again we would most likely use a program that we knew really well. We would also try to spend more time on the game to better improve it.