Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

 The workshop agenda ◦ Discussion & motivation ◦ Programming ◦ Tournament ◦ Debrief  My personal agenda ◦ Collect feedback ◦ Have some fun ◦ Continue to develop the games ◦ Create a user community? ◦ Stage multi-school competitions?

 Competition between programs ◦ Rock Paper Scissors (Lizard Spock) ◦ Robot Battles ◦ Board Games  Teacher ◦ Provides “arena” code and documentation ◦ Provides some very simple agents  Students ◦ Program agents for competition Show the games

 Strong motivator for some students  Element of fun / excitement  Open-ended challenge  Short student presentations  Feeling of “closure” on tournament day

 Accessible for students of all levels  Time & critical mass of students (5+)  Winning must be detached from grading  Links to prior learning & ministry expectations

 Both Games ◦ A2.2 & 2.3 – modular program design ◦ A3.2 – Searching / processing 1D arrays ◦ A4.1 & 4.3 – industry standard documentation  BattleBots ◦ A1.5 – arrays of compound data types  Rock Paper Scissors (Lizard Spock) ◦ A3.5 – 2D arrays * All references to the ICS4U curriculum (note that this is a conservative list.)

 History ◦ : Rock Paper Scissors ◦ 2010: 007 ◦ 2011: The Lizard Spock Expansion BattleBots  Very positive reviews from students  Many ambitious attempts at player creation  BattleBots: Improved final projects(?)

 Getting them there ◦ Grade 11  Java using modified version of Holt Software’s Console class for drawing & animating (  Javadoc style comments  Dr. Java ◦ Grade 12  Algorithms & efficiency  Array processing / arrays of objects / lists (array implementation)  Object-oriented design  Javadoc compiler / Java API  Applets with graphics / threads for animating / listeners  Eclipse  Timing ◦ 2-3 weeks (4-6 classes) for each game. ◦ Extra time to finish up documentation.

 BattleBots ◦ Four years experience ◦ Started using it as OOP intro but has found it’s better to wait until later.  Timeline ◦ 3 days of development  explores code with students each day ◦ Mock tournament ◦ 2 more days of development ◦ Final tournament  Winners engraved on a student-made trophy

 Lizard-Spock  Three years experience  Students are enjoying it

 Pair up / form teams if necessary  Choose Game  Walk through of setup & first agent creation  Program player strategies  Competition  Debrief

 What are the positive aspects of multi-agent games in the classroom?  What are potential pitfalls/drawbacks?  Would you use multi-agent games in the classroom? Why or why not?  What would you need to change in your classroom to make it happen?  What would need to change in the supporting software or documentation for you to make it happen?

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com

Sam Scott, Sheridan College eotw1969.com