Catch Me If You Can

Doing some simple coding in Hopscotch I came up with a game that can be both challenging and fun.
The idea of the game is to tap the characters as fast as possible to make them disappear. It develops hand-eye coordination and kinesthetic precision.

Coding:
The coding uses six main functions:
1. Random: This function is essential because it makes the movements  and turns of the characters unpredictable. I used random on the Move distance, and rotate degrees.
2. Move Distance: Makes the characters move around the ipad screen.
3. Rotate degrees: The characters rotates anything between 1 and 360 degrees. Different characters have different parameters.
4. Change pose: to improve the visual appeal of the game, it seems like the characters are moving.
5. All the above function are nested in a Repeat-End function.
6. Invisibility: Set to 100% when the player taps the character.

1-5 are under "When Play button is tapped"
6 is under "When (specific character) is tapped"

The process took some planning before starting the actual coding. Pre-planning clearly helps because you come to the application with a clear idea of what you want to achieve.

Next step:
The next step would be to add a timer, or a way of keeping track of how fast the player was able to eliminate (or disappear) all the characters. A way of keeping track would encourage players to improve their skills.
Also, the game can start with just one character and gradually add more characters, up to the point where the screen is filled with many moving characters. This will function as different levels of difficulty and challenges for the player.

Hopscotch and Hakitzu for teaching coding

I am very impressed with the way that games like Hopscotch and Hakitzu teach coding. First of all they are fun, and they are well designed. Clearly, a lot of work, planning and thought went these games. I will not consider myself a coder, but I have been exposed to coding enough to believe that these games do introduce the player to the world of coding. The games require a way of thinking that coders must have. More specifically, the logic for coding is being developed in these games.

The question about learning something about coding through these games is hard to answer. I will need to play more time and then try to find ways to test is the knowledge is transferable to other platforms. To prove if the games do teach coding there must way of testing the knowledge outside of the games, and also a way of assessing this knowledge. On the other hand, if the games serve as introductions to coding and to demystify the language of coding in a way that when it is time to take a serious course in coding it is not extremely intimidating for beginners, I believe these games can probably achieve that. The player is presented gradually with a set of rules and a logic that then can be used to make connections in a coding course.

Playing, or coding, with Hopscotch while describing what I was trying to do was an interesting experience. Talking through the process in a way made it easy. It seems to me that adults still do that. If we are looking at a map we might verbalize the streets that we need to follow to get from point A to point B. Now, in Hopscotch, verbalizing actually makes it much easier to understand the procedure. I did not experience fiero while playing Hopscotch, in part I believe is because when I was able to make the program do what I wanted it to do, it just seems logic and expected. Meanwhile, when things did not work the way as expected it was easy to feel like a total beginner that doesn’t understand a thing about coding. In other words, failing seemed much more frustrating than the “fiero” of succeeding.

BrainPOP's Matter Sorter

Title: Matter Sorter

Publisher: BrainPOP

Subject Area: Science

Summary: Sort falling objects on their state of matter before time runs out.

Ease of Use: Easy. A child can use it with minimal help.

Program Design Features: Review/Help, Levels of difficulty, Individual Use, Record keeping, Scaffolding.

Program Comments: The objective is to differentiate and recognize different states of matter. The game is similar to Tetris, in the sense that the various objects fall from the top and the player has to place them in its corresponding slots. Unlike Tetris, in Matter Sorter there is only one correct slot for the object. The game is simple and very intuitive, it is fundamentally a matching game. The game give you quick feedback, if you match an element incorrectly, it lets you know that it is wrong through a red color (green when it is correct), and later the same element shows up again.

Problem Solving Skills: Multiple solutions, Identifying relationships, Organizing information, Identification of patterns and sequence, Breaking complex problems into smaller parts.

Fun Factor: Good. What makes it enjoyable it that it get harder as you progress. It become an ejoyable challenge.

Matter Sorter is related to the educational video: States of Matter. The video describes the main states of matter, plus other less known states of matter like the Bose-Einstein state. The video uses the element of water to describe various states, and in addition to this it illustrates how water is transformed from one state to the other. The game succeeds at making students think about the different states of matter, but does not address the transformation of mater. 

Build a Solar System

Title: Build a Solar System

Publisher: BrainPOP

Subject Area: Science

Summary: Build your own solar system. Discover how gravity can create very different system of planets and stars that change over time.

Ease of Use: Drag and Drop planets.

Skill Set: Click and drag. Mouse.

Program Design Features:

Control of Pace: Yes

Ability to Backtrack: Yes

Levels of difficulty: No

Physical Interface: No

Speech Features: No

Childproof: Yes

Individual Use: Yes

Scaffolding: No

Program Comments: The screen has the sun in the center. Above the screen we have seven planets, and an additional sun. The player has to drop the planets into the main screen. The planets (or sun) start rotating around the initial sun. Depending on the relationship of distance and size between the planets the system works or gets destroyed because of a collision caused by gravity.

Problem Solving Skills: Multiple solutions, Using a model, Identifying relationships, Hypothesis formation, Stimulate imaginative thinking, Identification of patterns and sequence.

Fun Factor: The program is enjoyable. The graphics are acceptable. Every time you play it can feel different depending on where you place each planet. Unexpected things can happen and that is fun. It can be challenging and that can make children want to play it more times.

Supplementary Material: BrainPOP educational videos.

Type:Rider

Title: Type:Rider

Publisher: BULKYPIX

Subject Area: A typographic videogame.

Summary: Encourages players to learn about type by exploring a world of fonts. It’s a Mario-style game. It has amazing graphics and music.

Ease of Use: It is relatively easy to use. It’s is the kind of ipad game that is easier for children than for adults; very intuitive. 3 different control modes.

Skill Set: Basic skill is to know how to read, and very basic gravitational understanding might help, but not required of course.

Program Design Features:

Pace might be a little slow, but learning about fonts takes time!

Tutorial is great and fun.

Player can loose, you keep trying until the player overcomes the obstacle

Good track keeper, show progress.

Program Comments:

The most impressive aspect of the game is its graphics and music, which makes sense because the games is about fonts! It is very engaging and makes you want to keep coming back. It can be frustrating, but it comes with several gratifications. It is very clear what they are trying to teach, and also very clear abut the ‘gaming’ aspect of the application. In other words, the whole design is intended to be easily understood. It combines technology (ipad) with tradition, the text is meant to be as if it is on paper by its look and sound.

Problem Solving Skills:

Identifying relationships

Reasoning

Gathering information

Procedural thinking

Record keeping

Stimulate imaginative thinking

Braking complex problems into smaller parts

Fun Factor: High, because it engages into a world of its own, still highly connected the real history!

The Digital Frog 2, by Digital Frog International

Software Evaluation Guide/Outline

Title: The Digital Frog 2

Publisher: Digital Frog International

Subject Area: Natural Science

Summary: A comprehensive anatomy and physiology program supported by a full interactive dissection. More than 70 detailed screens include human anatomy comparisons and amphibian ecology.

Ease of Use: This is a software that a young person can use with minimal help. Basically you need to be able to use the mouse and point at things on the screen to be able to use this program. The target grade is probably high school.

Skill Set: To use this software you need basic reading skills.

Program Design Features:

Control of Pace            yes

Reviews/Help                yes

Ability to Backtrack     yes

Levels of Difficulty      no

Physical Interface         no

Speech Features           yes

Childproof (child reality ready?)          yes

Individual Use                          yes

Use with pairs/Small groups      yes

Printer Use                               no

Test/Recordkeeping/Game Save feature yes

Add-on Option-Can incorporate user content no

Scaffolding no

Program Comments: The Digital Frog 2 is an interactive virtual frog dissection and anatomy program to teaching about a specific ecosystem. The program uses a mix of encyclopedic information with learning through discovery and interaction. Activities include videos, readings, clicking and/or drawing with the mouse on different parts of the frog, and doing evaluation through multiple choice quizzes. The program is intuitive and easy to use. The illustration have zoom capabilities, and some of the videos have a slow motion option, both very good for learning. The video is very clear, and informative. On the other hand, pictures and illustrations are low quality, they seem dated: They could be better. In some of the screens, the background is the same color as the frog, this might not be ideal.

The program is a good source for learning about frogs and their ecosystem, it lets students learn at their own pace. The assessment system is good, but the program  should not let you continue before doing the quiz, or at least prompting you to try the quiz. This would be a good way of providing different levels of knowledge, instead of waiting until the end for the quiz.

In terms of the Common Core Standards, it definitely promotes literacy. A great feature is the option of defining any word that you click, a great way of expanding the students’ vocabulary.

Problem Solving Skills: Using a model, Question posing, Gathering information- discerning what is important information, Organizing information, Procedural Thinking, Stimulate imaginative thinking, Ability to explore, Breaking complex problems into smaller parts.

Fun Factor: The program is fun to use. Things like slowing down a video, or zooming in some of the images are fun things that students will enjoy. It is also fun to be able to explore the Frog without having to harm a real frog every time you want to review or learn about its ecosystem and physiology.

Supplementary Material: No

Follow-up activities: No follow up activities are suggested by the program itself. Teachers will probably have to design follow up activities.