Wildcat Workshop @ Marian Anderson School
GRADE 8
GAME ON!
Essential Questions
What roles do games play in our society?
Why is conservation of natural resources and wildlife important?
How can I use design thinking to create something that is useful and meaningful to others?
What does it mean to be a good digital citizen?
Key Projects
Board, card, and/or outdoor games inspired by nature
Digital games in code.org inspired by nature
April 2024
We continued using Game Lab to create and animating sprites. We also used dot notation to change sprite properties. Sprite properties keep track of the information a program needs to know about a sprite, like size and location.
March 2024
As we continued using Game Lab, began exploring how and why we might incorporate random numbers into our game code.
Students participating in the Media and Design Competition shared their projects at a city-wide event.
Grade 8 students Faith, Taraji, and Tamya won first place in the logo design category and represented Philly at the state competition.
Grades 7 and 8 students Nasir, Taahir, and Zyair won second place in the digital movie category with their documentary about child labor.
We watched a video about deep fakes and discussed (1) how they're made, (2) some positive and negative uses of the technology, and (3) how to handle deep fakes when you encounter them—especially when you're not sure it is one.
February 2024
As we continued using Game Lab, we began exploring how and why we might incorporate variables into our game code.
We practiced what we knew about drawing shapes and using variables to create a checkerboard animation. We had to use x and y coordinates to create the board and place the checker. Then, we needed to create, use, and update a variable for the y-position of the checker to make it move down the board.
We began preparing projects in animation, graphic design, and digital movie for the Media and Design Competition.
We watched a video about the history of video games and the contributions of Jerry Lawson, an African American engineer who led the development of the first cartridges for a gaming system.
January 2024
We kicked off our digital game design project. We began learning about how to draw shapes on a coordinate plane in Game Lab on code.org. Game Lab allowed us to use both blocks and text to write our code and learn JavaScript.
We earned Digital Citizen Badges for being Password Security Pros, Screen Time Managers, and Conscientious Digital Sharer. We also played Interland to learn more about digital citizenship.
December 2023
Students continued constructing their games. Students decided on what components of the games they would work on and what tools they would use. Here are some examples:
Game name, logo, marketing materials (Adobe Express, Canva)
Game pieces, board, cards (Tinkercad + 3D printer, Google Draw, Google Docs)
Rules, gameplay, backstory (Journal, Google Docs, Adobe Express)
For our school’s winter door decorating contest, a few students in grade 8 contributed to the Wildcat Workshop “Snow-make” theme by creating LEGO snowflakes, pixel art snowflakes with sticky notes, and a 3D printed snowflake w/ @tinkercad and 3D printer.
November 2023
We began reviewing what we knew about logo design. We'll need to design logos for our games. We analyzed example logos for board games and logos created by Mr. Smith and students. We developed a list of "tips for logo design." Then, we practiced creating logos of our own in Adobe Express using the tips we wrote down.
We started brainstorming game ideas. We started to select tasks that we wanted to take on as members of a team. For instance, one team member might focus on logo design while another started writing rules for the game. We're using digital tools like Adobe Express to design logos, Google Docs to write and format rules, Google Slides and Google Draw to create game boards, and Tinkercad to design 3D printable game pieces.
October 2023
We switched from thinking about the technical components of games to learning a little about insects to begin brainstorming game ideas. The games we build this year should be inspired by nature in some way. We learned about structural and behavioral adaptations of insects by (1) looking at examples of horned beetles and bees and (2) applying what we learned to look for adaptations in a video about more insects.
We also reflected on the idea of migration and some examples of migration in nature. We thought about how some organisms might migrate because they needed different resources as they seasons change. We also thought about how a specific example of migration (red knots) along the East Coast of the United States could give us a game design idea. Red knots stop in the Delaware Bay along their migration path to eat horseshoe crabs. Unfortunately, human activity has caused horseshoe crab populations to decrease, which means that red knots may not have the energy they need to continue their migration journey. If we treated the game hopscotch like a migration pathway, what would happen if we lost certain spots on our path? We tried out a version of such a game.
Some students running for positions in Student Government elections used Wildcat Workshop resources and tools to make copies of posters and create campaign videos.
September 2023
We kicked off our yearlong project: creating games (board games, outdoor games, card games, digital game coded in JavaScript) inspired by something in nature (adaptations, migrations, ecological relationships). First, we connected around games we like to play. A lot of us play the same games. Then, we discussed some features of games that we think are really important. Students brought up things like:
needs to be challenging but not too challenging
a concept
points, rewards, and/or achievements
doesn’t lag / glitch
We used our list of things a game can have and some game pieces to do a quick game design challenge.
For a follow-up challenge, we selected game pieces as well as plastic insect and animal pieces that we integrated into a new game design. We're practicing mental flexibility and exercising our creativity through quick design challenges.
