Educator News/Tips

Hunt for the Wombat Complete, Week 6

June 19th, 2006 by Administrator

Which software will be chosen for the cereal box? Recall that I had two development teams spread over two periods. One period had five team members, and the other had two team members. The project scenario involved the teams vying to create the “Hunt for the Wombat” game that would be selected for the Big SemiColon cereal box. Here's how the final “marketing” presentations went:

Team One (5 members). Created a game with a lot of functionality. Caves and tunnels were created with hazards, keystrokes were handled, and trivia functionality was included. Although there was broad functionality, the program has a lot of bugs.

Team Two (2 members). Decided to limit their functionality and get targeted classes working well. Their cave creation and graphics display are in good shape, but that's as far as it goes.

Project Summary - Student Perspective

What went well?

• Learned the rigors of software development
• Saw firsthand the importance of good planning
• Learned form and graphics processing
• Took advantage of the strengths of other team members for overall results
• Sharing algorithms with other teams during code swap fostered new ideas

What did not go so well?

• Ran out of time
• Took awhile to get into it; didn't know where to start
• Over complicated some of the algorithms
• Didn't understand forms or how to display them
• Security issues over the school network with Visual J# 2005

What strategies could be used for a better outcome?

• Read all the course content
• Review each class after it was completed rather than waiting until the end
• All team members work on the game control class
• Get a crash course on forms and form handling
• Start earlier (some students had other AP exams that delayed this project kick off)

 

 

Continue Reading... | No Comments »

Hunt for the Wombat--Design and Development, ...

June 5th, 2006 by Administrator

The Hunt for the Wombat continues! The project was received with a bit of disbelief that there was actually some work of substance to be done after the AP tests. But we grabbed our darts and power cells, and seven students began working in two teams on this project.

One period has five students on the team, and a snag came when over the half the team was going on an English field trip. When I signed their permissions forms, I reminded them to let the dev lead know about their “personal leave request” and asked how it would be scheduled into the project plan. There were some interesting raised eyebrows.

The other period has a two person team, and they made an argument that because there were only two of them, they should not be expected to get as much done. I asked, “Do you think it will be easy for the other team to combine all their parts?” Raised eyebrows again.

So we're off on the Wombat's trail. What hazards have we encountered so far?

• No design. The teams jumped to coding...class documentation is pretty much viewed as busy work to satisfy the teacher.
• Lack of time Reading. The course content, code archive and samples provide many tips to help the students figure out the technical and design challenges...but wanting to get to the action, these were initially underused. I pointed these resources out to the Dev Leads and encouraged them to promote them with their teams.
• Refreshing (our) Memory. In reading the Cave Connections text file, students had to refresh their memory on string manipulation and multi-dimensional array processing.

Our victories...

• Creating Test Beds. Students quickly appreciated the value of getting small sections of code working and programming “stubs.“
• Displaying Graphics and Forms. After reading the course content and code archive, students were successful in displaying graphics and forms...which was a major motivator. If it looks good...it must be good!?
• Building the Cave. Designing and processing the cave was another major milestone since it is pretty much the foundation of the system. Again, once students realized the value of the course resources, this went fairly quickly.

Later this week, the teams will swap code and documentation for the code review. I am interested to see how they evaluate each other and for them to see different algorithm designs for the same problem.

Susan

Continue Reading... | No Comments »

After AP Tests--Hunt for the Wombat Week 1

May 15th, 2006 by Administrator

Last week I launched the “Hunt for the Wombat” project that Microsoft is providing as a download from www.mainfunction.com. Not only are the students working in teams to program a graphic game, they are learning about the bigger picture of the software development process.

I ran a pilot of this project last year, and I assumed the role of the Project Manager. I had teams of 4-5 students, and they selected their Development Lead. If a student asked me a question, I told them to talk to their Lead first. I opted to have weekly status meetings with the Leads and left it up to them as to whether they wanted written or verbal status from their developers. A classic moment occurred when I heard one of the developers cry out...”I'd get a lot more done if I wasn't in meetings all the time!”

It was also quite a revelation for them to learn the value of design and standards when they tried to integrate all their programs together. During the final presentation, I saw a working version of the program that was no where near completion just a day earlier. I asked the students how they got it all to work in the final hour. “John took it home and rewrote the whole thing himself.” (Name changed to protect the not so innocent.)

I'm looking forward to seeing how the project turns out this year....I'll keep you posted.

Susan

Continue Reading... | No Comments »

Do You Know What to Do About Oppositional-Def...

February 24th, 2006 by Administrator
Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a mental health diagnostic term that can be applied by a mental health professional to describe some severely misbehaved youth and children. Although this youngster may be a real handful to manage, this diagnosis is an infinitely more hopeful and workable one than Conduct Disorder, which can appear similar... Here is a pop quiz to test your knowledge. Don't worry, the answers are below. These questions capture some of the most common misconceptions and questions we constantly hear in our workshops about these two types of hard-to-manage youth.
Continue Reading... | No Comments »

Free Printable Teacher Handouts from New Yout...

February 20th, 2006 by Administrator
Nearly every one of Youth Change's most creative, surprising and forceful intervention handouts are in our brand new "Behavior Change Handouts" ebooks. You can own them in a lightening-fast 60 seconds. They are that easy to download, and you can try out some handouts free. "Controlling Myself and My Feelings" gives you all of our most effective self-control devices in one place. The handouts are fully reproducible and include "If You're Rude, You're Our Dude" and "Find Work with a Temper Like That." "Becoming a Motivated and Prepared Student and Worker" has nearly all of our inventive ideas for work refusers, apathetic students, truants and bored youngsters. It includes many popular handouts including "If Life Were This Easy, You Wouldn't Need Us" and "Get Paid Great to Arrive Late." Get and print several worksheets free to see them for yourself. The worksheets are designed to work when conventional methods fail. Loaded with cartoons, games, quizzes, contests, stories, and every imaginable intervention, you are bound to find methods that work with even the most hard-to-reach youngsters.
Continue Reading... | No Comments »

Maximum-Strength Motivation-Makers

February 19th, 2006 by Administrator
Working with unmotivated children and youth doesn't have to be so difficult with these surprisingly unusual, compelling interventions that you just can't find anywhere else. Motivation is one of the many essential school kills that schools do not formally and systematically teach students. But, without motivation, kids don't look, act or sound like students. Entrenched negative attitudes can make it seem impossible to teach unmotivated youth. Here are some of the most common reasons kids believe that they won't need school, and some of our most dramatic and powerful ways to convincingly demonstrate otherwise.
Continue Reading... | No Comments »

Extreme Violence

February 19th, 2006 by Administrator
"They're like little match sticks waiting to be lit" A judge in Springfield, Oregon, site of a school shooting in May, 1998 This article for youth professionals explains how to tell which youth may pose the highest risk for potential serious harm, and what you must do now to understand and work with them. To best ensure your safety, and the safety of your other students, and to effectively teach and counsel all youth in our violent times, be sure to fully upgrade your skills to become expert on all your "little match sticks waiting to be lit." By Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Youth Change
Continue Reading... | No Comments »