For our science 10 ecology, we are building a game that is enjoyable and also can teach the players about the science 10 ecology. I am partnered with Leif. The project is due next week, so I will write about how far we have done so far in designing the game, and what we plan to do during the weekend and some of the days after that.

Our game plan

– There can technically be as much player as they want, but player of 3 to 5 is preferable.

– The whole point of the game is to gain as much point as possible to reach a certain amount of points(which will end the game), or to have the most point when the game ends.

– Now, how you get the point is simple.

– There will be basically five islands in the middle where you can build your ecosystems.

– Everyone from the start will draw about 3 animal cards. They will be random animals with random habitats.

– In order to get the point, you need to build a ecosystem that your animals can live in.

– There are 8 main biomes that we look at. : ‘Boreal Forest’, ‘desert’, ‘Grassland’, “Permanent Ice”, ‘Temperate Deciduous Forest’, ‘TemperateRainforest’, ‘Tropical Rainforest’, ‘Tundra’

– Through our research that we are going to do during the weekend, we will find out each biomes’ Vegetation (how much plants or trees there are), Climates (The average temperature, and precipitation), and the soil (how fertile the soil is and how much water there are on the ground).

– We are going to set the approximate amount of cards that we are going to need to make each biomes according the research that we do. For example, we will have : Tree cards(represents how much of trees there are), Grass cards(represents how much grass or small plants there are), Temperature cards(can use to lower or raise the temperature), precipitation cards(represents the weather = how much rain are there or is it sunny),  soil cards(represents the amount of soil there are on the ground), and water card(represents how much water there are on the ground).

– Each islands will be a place where you can build the biome that you want for your animals.

– In each of your turn, you have a choice of using a biome card, or drawing a random animal card.

– Each turn, if you choose one of the Biome cards(basically the cards that I just told you above, that can change the climate and things), you can use them on the island that you want. Just so you know, you are not set on a specific island. You can freely go around the island, but at the beginning you would want to focus on building the biome that you want on one of the islands.

– When you succeed in building the biome that you wanted, you can start placing the animal cards that you had on your hand on the biome that fit in.

– Now of course, you can’t just put down any animals just because it fits into the biome.

– It needs to have a food chain

– For example, you can’t place a tiger, which is at the top of the food chain, before you have a deer on the island.

– When you start, you assume that the plants are already created from the process of building the biome, so you start with primary predators and go up on the food chain

– Naturally due to this rule, placing the animals on the higher part of the food chain, would gain you more points than the animals at the lower part of the food chain.

– Every time the turn passes from a player to another, the animals you have placed will grant you points.

– However, this doesn’t end like this. In order to make it interesting, it opens the possibility for the players to distract others.

– Every time you pick up an animal card, you also have to pick up a chance card. The chance cards are made with disaster cards and real chance cards.

– The chance cards will help you go through the game faster by giving advantages such as duplicating a card, being able to draw two cards per turn, or being able to use a disaster card against others.

– However, the disaster cards will bring natural disasters, such as volcano eruptions, or earthquakes that will affect the biomes that you have built.

– In this game, players are forced to sometimes corporate or compete with each others to win the game.

– Since they can use their biome cards in any of the 5 islands, players could try to destroy other people’s islands’ biomes to prevent from gaining points.

– Due to the fact that the animals on the islands are built from food chains, if the biome is destroyed, or the animals at the bottom of the food chains are ruined, the balance will be destroyed and will kill them all eventually.

so these are the rules that I have made so far. During the weekend, we will research and start making the board and cards from monday next week. I hope it works well, and if you find any problems or new ideas that can be added on this game, you are more than welcomed to comment. Thanks, have a wonderful weekend.

I haven’t done blogging for a while and we have a time to do it, so I am doing it.. I will talk about my current IDS(Independent Directed Study) and the idea I have for my next one. I don’t really expect others to see this and comment on it or anything, but this would be a good letter to my future self. My current IDS is designing a 3D model of my school (inquiry hub) and 3D print it, or post it on a 3D model store. I am using a program called scatch up, and I am almost finished. I went around the school and took pictures/videos with my Ipad, and used google map to see the top view of my school. the picture below is my current state. I need to do the back side of the school. I was intending to finish this in 2 or 3 months and go to my next IDS, but I dragged it too long and now it’s like 4 month. I really want to do the next IDS because I have so much ideas I want to try, but I need to finish this first.

For my next IDS, I am thinking or creating an Ipone/app that can help with my school system. I am planning to use a program called Xcode. The main thing I want in the app would be location tracking. I want to build some kind of Ihub site app around that idea. My plan is to use the GPS system from Ipones to send the geographic location to the internet and match that location with the school’s, so that we can know where they are inside the school. This can actually help with lots of things, such as when teachers are taking attendance in the morning, they can just look at the app to do the attendance. Also this way, we won’t have to worry about people disappearing. In an emergency situation, like fire or earthquake, we will know if someone is still inside the building or not. Also if you lost your phone or something, you can find it. The main good thing that I like is how when students who are using this program would be able to know where everyone else is, and don’t have to search for them when they need it. I will also input a simple chat system so that they can ask each other whether they want to work on their projects, or work together.

Of course, there are possible side-effects to this idea. The main thing would be security. If this program gets into the “wrong-hands” this can be used to track down people and steal stuff or kidnap them or something. However there are always “possible side-effects” to anything, and I thought of some regulations to prevent these things.

1. The application(program) will only run from 9 O’clock to 3O’clock in the school days, so that they can’t be used when the student is not at school.

2. The app will only track people who are around the school area. If they go home, or leave the area, it would be automatically turned off.

3. The student or teacher will have the choice to use the app or not, so if they don’t want to be seen they can just turn off the app. (however, when they are using that app to see others, they have to reveal their presence.)

4. I will ask their agreements on revealing their location.

Not only the location tracking system, but I also want to put some other things such as sending announcements through the app so that they don’t have to gather around to listen to it. I also want a calendar in there so that people can check the schedule easily. I also want to put ‘lost and found’ system so that people who lost their things can use that anything anywhere.

I am still wondering about the design of it, and I would love to have more ideas and technology in there. If you are reading this and have some interesting ideas that can improve this app, you are welcome to comment on this.

We started our this inquiry project. My group was Me, and Leif. We decided to learn about ‘Arduino’ which is a tool that allows us to use our programming in robotics. We are planning to make a presentation at the end that will help the next group understand this tool better. In addition we will also make a circuit in our own way that does something.

I spent whole night yesterday to finish this presentation. However, it was delayed for few more days. At first I felt this emptiness that you get when you work so hard to earn nothing. However, through asking the teachers to see my presentation, I found out that there are some mistakes that I missed. Now I’m glad that I have more than enough time to complete my presentation.

This is my better version of how to video.

If I had a real camera, I could have taken the video in different views in different locations. However, I only used the computer.

I could also have got an audience so that I could show the real magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE-hceEJLps