1. CSDT: BeadLoom Game Acey Boyce UNC Charlotte

2. We Love Virtual Bead Loom  Our most successful CSDT  Extremely effective at teaching Cartesian Coordinates and Geometry  Free play results in very creative products

3. Free Play Results

6. Problem  Students tend to use “easiest” tools available in a free play environment  Very rarely utilize advanced tools to create patterns  Avoids learning iteration

7. Example Goal

8. Ideally…

14. Total Creates Used: 6

15. Really…

17. Total Creates Used: 117

18. Questions  How can we “force” students to use advanced tools and think in terms of optimization?  How can we do that AND still allow the kids to have fun?

19. Solution  Convert the VBL into a puzzle game!

20. The Game  Given a goal image try to create that image in the fewest moves possible  Each time a draw button is clicked the move count goes up by 1

21. The Game  Ideal solutions require advanced usage of iterative tools and painters algorithm (Layering)  Players are awarded medals based on performance and high scores are maintained

22. What I Have Done  Created over 30 puzzles and found ideal solution to each

23. What I Have Done  Puzzles range from traditional to modern

24. What I Have Done  Created a system to display puzzles and check student work against goal  Implemented the system for local score keeping, puzzle unlocking, and medal earning  Developed tutorial puzzles to introduce players to each tool

25. Trial By Fire  Used game at 2 Summer Camps Camp 1: 20 Middle Schoolers Camp 2: 18 High Schoolers  Each group played game for about 30 minutes a day for 4 days in a competitive setting

26. Results  Kids had fun!  Fought Tooth and Nail to win each contest  Three High Schoolers even asked for a copy of the game to play with at home

27. Results  Middle Schoolers (Aided in finding many bugs): Average Rating: 3.74 out of 5  High Schoolers (90% of bugs removed): Average Fun Rating: 4.27 out of 5 Average Educational Rating: 4.27 Average Overall Rating: 4.33

28. What they learned  Sadly the Pre/Post Test for middle school camp did not focus on game  Students did however seem to have a deeper understanding of painters algorithm and iteration

29. What they learned  Had to tell students not to use iteration for some puzzles  Complexity of Free Play designs went up as puzzle difficulty increased  According to game logs students made fewer errors as week progressed

30. What they learned  High School Pre/Post Test divided into 3 sections: Cartesian Coordinates Iteration Painter’s Algorithm

31. What they learned  Iteration Pre Test Average: 75.3%  Iteration Post Test Average: 84.0%(8.7% Increase)  Painters Pre Test Average: 33.3%  Painters Post Test Average: 52.8%(18.5% Increase)

32. Painters Note*  I believe in future testing this will be even higher increase  The Pre Test question did not print correctly

33. Future Work  Addition of a Timer  Addition of a multiplayer high score table  Creation and implementations of more puzzles

34. Future Research  What makes a game?  What makes a game fun?  Use three versions of game Bare Bones: Just Scoring Competitive: High Score Table Advanced: Customizable User Interactions

35. In Closing  Thank you for creating CSDTs and providing me the inspiration for this game  It has lead to me accomplishing a major goal in life: Kids enjoying and asking to play a game I created