I’m having troubles with the fact that I don’t think students have enough options with their coding at this point to make their own game.
Students are having troubles coming up with ideas that are actually possible to code.
It would be nice if this came after learning about something like the accelerometer which would open things up. It’s also tough for them as many want to have continually moving object which are hard to make or they want to use some sort of a “collision” which is also difficult.
Just wondering if anyone is dealing with this lesson any differently? I’m thinking of skipping it all together or moving it to later.
Chris,
I agree - students tended to go back to Unit 3 and want to make games. Starting in Unit 4 I pushed hard for Apps that solve a problem. While the accelerometer lesson was fun, the students already had in their mind that they were creating an app so it didn’t have a lot of use for them. I know you can’t go back to Unit 4, but I would start pushing that idea and maybe take a day to do some design thinking of problems and potential solutions with apps. The Cooper Hewitt Museum has a lot of great online resources for Design Thinking and generating ideas.
Also interested to hear others ideas!
Hope that helps!
Brad
Thanks Brad. I do appreciate the ideas and will check out the site you mentioned. I think the fact that Lesson 8 is a game really doesn’t help with getting the students thinking this way. I’m still wondering what types of things your students or other students are coming up with. Maybe I need to adjust my thinking around it as I think we’re still somewhat limited with a couple buttons and the 3 sensors on the circuit playground.
In going back to lesson 4, I sort of wish students got more into the coding of the app than they do. Might try that next year.
Thanks
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