Learning Log: November 30th

What we did today:

      Today in class we started to watch a movie called "First Knight". It is about Lancelot,who at the moment is not a member of the round table. Also it is about Guinevere and King Arthur getting married. During the movie we took some notes on things the movie can tell us about Medieval Times.


Learning Intentions:

     We did this both for fun and learning purposes. It was for fun since we got to watch a movie; but still educational since the movie took place in Medieval times.  We also took notes to further our understanding of the time and to help us with the worksheet that Ms.Lees will post on the blog for us to do.


Homework:

       The only homework is the worksheet Ms.Lees will be posting on the blog.
Don't forget about peer reviews for Genius Hour. We are presenting next week.


Tips:

       You need 3-5 peer reviews for Genius Hour.
        Check the blog for the worksheet.

Genuis Hour

Genius Hour Project

What is your project about?

Our project is about making games with Game Maker, we are helping each other when we have problems with our games.

Why did it appeal to you?

It appealed to us because we wanted to figure out how to make games. We have always been  interested in games and have always wondered how to make the games that we see.

Content and skills
The skills include:

•      Programing (To allow things such as movement into the game)
•      Art (Sprite Making)
•      Creating a log to show process (Our blog)
•      Problem Solving (You can get many errors while creating the game)
•      Math (Graph, x, y, speeds)

Where are you now?

We are at the point where we are all almost done our games, we are logging our progress on our blog.

I’m doing well on my genius hour project. I have a free play mode complete with moving enemies, allies and a scoring system to allow you to either win or lose. You can also test your skills in free play by decreasing your amount of allies and increase your opponents’ amounts; or vice versa. I have a save system too. This includes 2 different kinds of saving, story and free play. Speaking of the story, I have started my story. This only includes 2 levels, but I now where it’s going to go as well as what I need to do to get there. I should be done by this week or over the weekend.

- Jarrod

Well, I am doing well on my Genius Hour project. I have created most of the sprites, and most of the backgrounds are finished. I like to write in Comic Sans because it makes people cry. I’ve had a few problems here and there, but I am doing well so far. My game is called “Crystal Puncher”, because it is a game where you punch crystals. Simple! If you’d like more information, check my page on our blog. It has more information there.

Thank you!                                                                                                            -Alayna



I’m doing well on my genius hour project, I finished 1 game, Cat&Mouse, where there are orange blocks(CATS), and You,the mouse(GREY BLOCK). You are trying to avoid the cat, but cats spawn(appear) every few second, and more and more spawn until you lose. Your score goes up every second, and every 50 second, a cheese spawns, which gives you an extra life.

My second game is Attack of the Burgers. There is a McDonald box on the top of the screen, and it constantly spawns burgers out of it. The Burgers, if it is on top of you, pushes you down. There are Pop (Soda) on the bottom, if you touch it, you lose. I finished making the burger, McDonalds, and the player. I still have to do the collisions and the Pop, but i am pretty much done.

When i finish this game, i plan on messing with HTML5, because if you do it that way, you can play it on ANYTHING as long as you have a browser, and Internet connection.

- Johnny, the master of masters

Right now in my game I have done much of the basic things but I still need to fix some of my characters attributes so that he can attack the enemies, stop getting stuck in places, going through walls and have a health bar. My enemies still have no gravity so the float also I need to make them attack my character. I also need need to make a boss to fight at the end of the level. There will be only one level in my game because it is my first one but if i make another game it will probably be more advanced.

- Jadyn

If you could give us any feedback, that would be great!
We would like to know if:
Our games appeal to you
How effective the blog is
If you’d ever use Game Maker to create your own game
What would a good way to present be?

LINKS:Our blog
Game Maker 8.1
Game Maker Studio

Genius Hour Project Outline! Sydney, Jessica, Emily, Olivia

Genius Hour Project:              Sydney, Olivia, Emily, Jessica
Why do people sneeze differently?

  

What is our project about?
       Have you ever wondered why every sneeze sounds different? Well, that’s what our project is all about. Our project explains the effects of sneezes and how everyone sneezes differently. There is such a wide variety of different sneezes that not everyone knows about.  Our project is going to answer several different questions regarding sneezes, such as, “What are the common causes of sneezing?”,  “ How do surroundings change the sound of your sneeze” , “Why do people sneeze differently?” and “What happens inside your body when you sneeze?”. We have planned a video showing people how everyone sneezes differently in a variety of different surroundings. We are also using the editing software “iMovie”. It is our first time using iMovie so this will be a learning experience also and it will help our problem solving skills.
Why did our project appeal to us?
      One day in class, we looked around and we heard and saw different people sneeze differently with a variety of sounds. We all wondered why and we have never heard an answer for this so we thought this would be a good project to work on. It would answer our question along the way and we hope it will answer our fellow classmates’ questions too. This is an everyday occurrence so it makes lots of people wonder why it actually happens. We think it is an interesting topic that everyone encounters on a daily basis.
Where are we at now?
   We are almost done. We probably need around two more classes to work on our projects to polish them up and prepare for the presentation. We have the video made but we want to edit it a bit more and put some finishing touches so it will be perfect. It will be about 5 minutes long and we hope to catch the audiences’ attention.
Feedback:
We need some help with the presentation of the project. We have our voice in the video already but we are supposed to talk during the presentation so we have no idea how. Please give us some suggestions, advice, and feedback. Thank you.                      

Genius Hour Progress

Here is our progress so far with our Genius Hour project. Kevin, Brendan and Eddy.
Please click this link.

Learning Log for November 26th!

       

 What we did in class today:

       Today in class, we looked at the Morris Ward Blog and also their newspaper. We saw that they had shared their inspiration projects with us on the blog so we took a quick look over several of them. Our class is also sharing our genius hour projects with the Australian class so we went to the computer lab to type out our information regarding our genius hour projects. Its basically like a summary and also a feedback form. If we were done our genius hour project, we were told that we could post it on there also so that they can give us some feedback. We included some struggles that we have right now or in the past when working on our projects and we asked them to give us some feedback or advice to help us with our problems.

  Learning Intentions :

          We are sharing our genius hour projects with the Australian class so that we can get lots of peer feedback to make sure our projects are to the best they can possibly be. It helps us with our problem solving skills and it gives us an idea of what other people think of our project. It will also help us reflect on our projects and think of the struggles that we may have had in the process of developing our project. I think it will help us a lot in making our projects better.

   Connections: 

          It connects us to the world and gives us an idea of what people far away from us think of what we are doing. It will help us a lot to know what other people think based on what you have down because they don`t know you personally. It is a skill to develop good sharing habits that we will benefit in the future when we want our work to be flawless. Like in university, when you are writing an essay, you want it to be very good and not have any errors so it is best to have someone check it for you.

  Homework:

       For todays homework, you have to finish up your basic summary of what your genius hour project is about. You should also read and finish your novel by Wednesday! 

  Tips:

  - Put your genius hour summary and peer feedback that you are sending to the Australian class in a Google Doc. so that all the members in your group can work on it and edit it together.

  

          

Learning Log november 23

What we did in class today:

In class today people that didn't go up in there groups went up to peer review the grades that other classmates put on the graphic organizer. What I mean by grades what, last class we got in groups and got a few already done graphic organizers. We disscused them in our groups and decided what letter grade they should get A+, A , B+ , B , C+ depending on the information, neatness ,and  the kind of pictures/Venn diagrams etc. After when we were all done we put them up on the board from A+ - C+. When everybody was done we got called up in our groups and put red stickers beside the letter grade if we dissagreed and green stickers beside them if we didn't. Some groups didnt get to go up because we ran out of time .

Today the groups that didn't finish went up and disscussed what they thought!after everybody finished we went over them as a class to review if the marks were appropriate, we also discussed a lot about what makes a good graphic organizer. We discussed what was important to have like.... Venn diagrams,t charts,fish bones etc.  and also different visual things like... color coordinating , pictures/drawings and also one of the most important things is the information like... no sentences,lots of details, and makes sense. After looking over and discussing what makes a good graphic organizer we started to take notes about graphic organizers and unnecessary things in them and very important things that we should know. While doing graphic organizers we have to stay on topic and make it interesting and eye catching and VERY neat!! 

Learning intentions:

I think it is very important to know how to use graphic organizers efficiently and useful.Graphic organizers can help you when you need to study for a test or for project ideas maybe even just ideas for maybe a birthday party ideas when and you don't know what to do. Ms.Lees has gone over graphic organizers a lot because they are very important the learning intentions are so when we get older or even just for other classes we know how to use them properly because they can really help. The point of learning so much about them was because graphic organizers can help get your ideas flowing/ brainstorming !

Homework:

• Read your novel.. you should almost be done FINISH BY WEDNESDAY!

• Work on Genius Hour projects/ we will be showing our progress somehow to our Australian friends soon! 

Tips!

Look over your graphic organizer notes because we will be making our own on wednesday about our novels!

RE: Posting Order

I'd rather not have everybody bumped back a day as we are using the schedule because it fits us the best, e.g. for days we have after-school activities.

Is everybody okay with this order for this week and after that, we go back to our old schedule.

Monday - Kevin
Tuesday - Jarrod
Wednesday - Sydney
Friday - Jessica