Tectonic Chances: summative reflection

Woohoo! Winter break starts in one day! Though before I rush out of school I must do my summative blog post for this project. 

For this project on plate tectonics we made game about plate tectonics. My partner for this project was Alicia. Go check out her blog to see her thoughts on our project! This project has had its ups and downs, but overall it was a fun learning experience and a cool way to view plate tectonics. 

How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design?

In games, math and probability is key to have different outcomes in games. Almost every game known to man has some form of a mathematical theme. You use thematic elements for different themed games for the purpose of the game attracting different audiences. One example of use of thematic elements in game is Monopoly. There are so many different themed monopoly games; they have ones ranging from the original to a friends tv show themed monopoly! Our game demonstrated both mathematical and thematic elements. Our mathematical element being our spinner and our theme being plate tectonics. 

Evidence of my learning:

MindMap

This is my MindMap. We started at the beginning of the project with a few ideas of what we already knew. We added questions and throughout the project we reviewed our MindMaps. I answered almost all of my questions. 

Game

This is my biggest evidence of learning for this project, its my game! For our game we used a world map as our game board and marked the big cities across the world. The goal of our game was to collect all of the 17 city cards. The probability in our game was our spinner. You could land on 10 different sides. Giving you a one in ten chance that you would get a certain side. Each side made you do something different, for example if you landed on convergent plate boundary you could rise to wherever another player was and collect that city card from your deck. Giving yourself an advantage. I had fun making this game and I think it was an awesome evidence of my learning!

Core Competencies:

Questioning and Predicting: How can I demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest?

I demonstrated this competency by always working hard in class. I used my time efficiently by focusing on my work and ideas and not talking to my friends. Though there was the occasional time where I wasn’t focused but that was only because I already had finished my work. I always try to stay focused in class because then I usually don’t have homework. Something that I do not enjoy. 

Evaluating: How can I demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence? 

I demonstrated this competency through having 10 key science concepts and by using plate tectonics as my theme. The spinner represented my science concepts by having 10 different sides that were all science concepts. My game board represented plate tectonics by being a world map. I even had trivia questions for each turn. All of the trivia questions were related to plate tectonics. 

Understanding and Solving: How can I develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving? 

I demonstrated this competency by having probability in every turn. In each turn in my game you spin the spinner, which decides the fate of your turn. You can gain city cards through the spinner or you can lose them. Each side of the spinner has a different outcome which causes your route in the game to be different from the other players. 

 

Overall, I had fun creating this game. I had never really learned about plate tectonics so I was lost at the beginning of this project though the more I learned throughout this project the more knowledge about tectonics I gained. It was very interesting to see how volcanoes, earthquakes, mountains, and tsunamis are all related to plate tectonics. I thought only earthquakes were. Though it turns out I was wrong. 

Happy Holidays! 👋🏻

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