Week Three

Design a frog is the aim of the game, today we are designing just that, so our Auntie's in Sri Lanka or anywhere can play, in other words it will be on line. Using a design brief, we investigated and designed a mechanism that propelled a template of a frog forward, or in the direction we faced it. The resources were, a rubber-band, cardboard and the frog template.

I believe we were successful, we stabbed a whole through the cardboard and made a little fold at the end. We placed the template on the board, pulled the elastic, to store up energy and let go, the frog jumped. We found that the length of the cardboard that moves had an influence on the distance the frog travels. Mechanically, if the length was long the frog traveled further and with more speed.

Like so:

We also created games on QUIA, here is the link to one of the games created:

http://www.quia.com/jw/386819.html

http://www.quia.com/quiz/2511807.html

The first created game is a selection of words that have been jumbled for the student to figure out. The program, a thirty day free trial from QUIA is fairly easy to use, all you have to do is follow your nose. The next game made, was a quiz about birds of prey. Click and play.

The idea or concept to consider when building these games is that they are higher order thinking, that requires students to collaborate, research together and make inquiries.

At the end of the lesson we were shown a great little idea using card, an example is : o/BA, BSC, MeD, ask students, what does this mean? Three degrees below zero!

All this higher order thinking may require scaffolding however the guidance is useful and will pay off in the end. The games are as engaging as you make them so you can make them fun to keep the children interested.