Choosing a Programming Project

10/11/15 Teacher Feedback:

On the one hand, I love the differentiation.

On the other, I worry that, even with differentiation, the amounts of time required to complete the different projects is radically different. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but teachers need to have the ability to get away from keeping students at the same pace.

I do not have suggestions at this time. I'm just a bit concerned that you will hit trouble because of the timing issues.

Don't make them do the video. There is not enough time. --BH in meeting on 10/13/15

You now have a chance to develop a project of your own. You may choose one of the ideas suggested below, or design something completely different. Doing your own project will help to prepare you for the Advanced Placement Create Task later in the year.

The AP Create Task, later this year, requires you to go through each of the following steps with a partner and also individually. For now, you will work only with a partner, and you will not do the video.

  Review the following ideas for projects, and select one to build. Or design one of your own ideas!
  1. Improve or extend a project you have already started.
    1. You built ClickAlonzo in Unit 1. You can now keep track of players' scores, or add another sprite that chases you and you have to avoid or.... Invent your own ideas.
    2. You built a Contacts app. You can invent "search" or some other feature. And you can make it look better.
    3. You built sprite chase project. Lots of projects can come from that. Here's one: imagine that some sprites are wolves and some are sheep. Wolves need to eat to live, so they chase sheep and eat them if they catch them. But if they eat all the sheep, the wolves have nothing to eat and die, too. Sheep reproduce if they live long enough. Build a model that "lives" for a while.
    4. You built sentence generators. You might make more interesting sentences, or parts of conversations, or even poems, or choose another language.
    5. You built art and music generators. You might research what geometric ideas artists have used and model some of their art. Or you might find a way to write a melody as a list of positions on a scale and them map the melody to various scales.
    6. You began a board game in Unit 2, and extended it to let two people play Tic Tac Toe. You might get the computer to play one side of the Tic Tac Toe game. Here are some things the computer might want to "think" about on its turn: Can I win on this move? If not, must I block the other player on this move?
    7. There are zillions of other games on a Tic-Tac-Toe-like board. Here's one: On a six-by-six board, get four in a row. Here's another, originally invented by a nine-year-old girl named Rani: On a five-by-five board, on your turn, play in any space that doesn't touch (even at a corner) a space that has already been played in. Last person who can move is the winner. Tough game to play well!
    8. The number guessing game is too easy. What twenty-questions-like game can you invent?
  2. Invent something new:
    1. Use sprites as the buttons on a calculator, and make your calculator work.
    2. Invent an algebra calculator, like multiply two binomials. You might represent -2x + 1 as the list {-2; 1}. It could help with homework!
    3. Or come up with any idea of your own!
  3. Projects that others have done:
    1. Bug Dance Animation
      bug standing
    2. Kaleidoscope Visual Effects
      Kaleidoscope Project
    3. Country Quiz
      Country quiz
    4. Pong is a classic video game from 1972.
      Pong Video Game
      Pong game
    5. The Ferris Wheel project depends on nesting sprites, a little feature we'd have to teach them...
    6. The Ferris Wheel project requires nesting sprites.
      Ferris Wheel Animation
      Ferris Wheel animation
    7. Breakout is a classic video game from 1976.
      Breakout Video Game
      Breakout game

    The following videos are designed for Scratch, not Snap!, but the two are similar enough that you can develop one of these games using Snap!:

    1. Maze Game
      Scratch is like Snap! for elementary school, but these games are cool.
      Maze game
    2. Asteroids Game
      Asteroids game