1.Maze planning & asset creation Day1

This is a 2-4 day project. Today Students will 1. plan game by writing Pseudocode, 2. create game assets ( backdrop and hero) . 3. create controls.

OBJECTIVES:

OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, students will:

- prepare pseudocode for completed maze
- illustrate a backdrop using the Art Editor
- create interactive controls that move a sprite in four directions: up; down; left; right.

Project Planner

STUDENT PAGE

Standards

- CSTA 2-AP-10: Use flowcharts and/or pseudocode to address complex problems as algorithms.
- CSTA 2-AP-13: Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs.

CSTA

DO NOW:

Do Now Impacts of Computing (5 minutes)

1. Watch "Navigating City Streets" (1:28)
2. Discuss:
  - What does a self-driving car rely on to navigate city streets?
  - What computer science concept do these cars use to stay safe while driving?
  - What are the impacts of self-driving cars on the way humans travel?

Teacher Guidance

Self-driving cars use sensors to navigate city streets and obstacles that they encounter.
Self-driving cars use boolean logic (True/False) to analyze information collected from sensors to make predictions and adjust accordingly.
Various answers. e.g. Impacts can be both positive and negative.
- - - Instead of taking a taxis / uber / lyft, you will be able a self driving car!
    - People who are drivers today, will need to look for new work. This includes coast to coast Truck Drivers.

Mini-Lesson

Planning is very important in Computer Science. Pseudocode is seen in all student handouts after this point.

Project (20-30 minutes)

Activity 1: Write PseudoCode (10 minutes)

Pseudocode are instructions for your computer program, written in plain English. In the movie industry you create storyboards before you start to film. In computer science you create pseudocode before you start to program. In story writing you create drafts before you make your final version.

Pseudocode is written, independent of the programming language you eventually choose.

The advantages of pseudocode are :

- You articulate and clarify your ideas.
- You abstract your thinking, which is a computational thinking skill.

Students look at completed maze and write pseudocode for creating this program, using a PseudoCode Scaffold

Activity 2: Make the Maze Background (10 minutes)

Watch Video to learn how to make background
- Show students how to create the maze background.
- Suggest to students that they use two contrasting colors, for a clean simple “color scheme”. One for the rectangles, one for the pathway.

Activity 3: Make the Controls: (30 minutes)

- Using student handout and their pseudocode, students create controls to move their hero sprite around the maze.
- “Interactive controls” can be written in multiple ways. This teacher reference document shows some variations you may see.
- For a more guided lesson, make use of this slide deck.

This document is helpful for students who finish early: student: Spicy Challenges.

TEACHER GUIDANCE:

Making the Maze Backdrop:

Tip 1: Stress to students that to create their Art on a Backdrop ( not a character sprite). Show them that Backdrops do not have motion commands.
Tip 2: Steer students away from using black for the walls as it needs to be distinguishable from the end sprite, which may be outlined in black.
Tip 3: Students should use a solid color (full shade) when drawing the wall rectangles. They should not ouline in Black, as the end sprite may be outlined in black.

Close-Out (5 minutes)

Discuss the following questions:

- 1. Why is it useful to write Pseudocode before you code?
  2. Is there more than one way to write code for interactive controls?
  3. Google Quiz on Stage Coordinate Grid

Potential Responses

Writing Pseudocode helps clarify ideas and builds good design strategies. Pseudocode is used (independent of programming language) by software engineers when building programs.
Yes, there are lots of different ways to write code that produce the same outcome. Always make your code easy to read and use meaningful names for your sprites.

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