Chemistry Coding Post

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog.

Today I’ll be writing about the project I have been doing in Scimatics 8.

This project was based around the “Kinetic Molecular Theory” and coding.

The kinetic molecular theory describes how atoms react differently to various states of matter. And how when changes of state occur, a change in particle motion happens as well.

Everything in PLP is guided by the “driving question”.

 The driving question to this project was “How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and the atomic theory?”

My answer to that is that it can be explained through different game inspirations and through various simulators.

The first step to this project was creating a “project start mind map”. This mind map included our “need to knows”, things that we already knew, and examples. At the time the only thing that I knew about atoms was that they are small. I was quite familiar with these mind maps since I had done a few of them in past projects. This mind map was Milestone 1 in the project.

Also, at the end of the project we answered any of our previous need to knows.

 

 Since the final product was a coded game, the next step was to start building up to that. One of the key pieces in the evaluation criteria was including historical models from different scientists. Before we could choose our models, we first had to build knowledge on these scientists theories and discoveries.

To do that we did some workbook practice. Later on in the project we also did a test on the theories and models. 

For my game, I chose to include models from Niels Bohr and Ernest Rutherford.

 

 

All projects in PLP are guided by the Curricular Competencies. To demonstrate my learning further, I’m going to list what I think I did well and what could be improved.

Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.

I think that during the project there were times where I was not focused. However, near the end I was really putting in the extra effort to get things done and elaborate with all of my ideas.

Scientific Communication: Communicate ideas, findings, and solutions to problems using scientific language, representations, and digital technologies.

It took me some time to communicate ideas and put my game together, however, I think my ideas were solid and that’s what made my game cool. Personally, I really benefited from the workbook practice, as well as the test because it gave me the knowledge to create a cool game. I think that I really improved in this skill during this project. 

Reasoning and Analyzing: Use logic and patterns (including coding) to solve puzzles and play games.

At first, coding seemed impossible. Things were not working out the way I wanted and my knowledge on coding wasn’t there. The way that I improved was by exploring various resources and practicing coding and getting familiar with it. 

 

 

Now, the final product!

Unfortunately, the was a technical problem so I only have pictures to show you guys.

I will make sure to add the game link when the error is resolved!

For my game I chose to use Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen as my molecules. I soon realized that those 3 mixed together create soda pop so I chose that as my game idea! My first thought was a to create a game instead of a simulator because I wanted something that was fun for the user.

 

To summarize, I found learning about molecules and atoms to be really interesting. Furthermore , it was cool to code and create my own video game. The thing that I found most challenging in this project was coding at first, since I wasn’t very familiar with it. My favorite part of this project has to be finishing my final product and being proud of it!

Thanks for reading today’s blog!