Ok, so this project was all about coding, matter and atoms. We had to code a game or simulator on scratch (which is a free coding site) and it had to include at least 3 different models of atoms from historical figures who helped form the atomic theory. This game or simulator also had to include partial movement, function controls and different states of matter. At first I was exited for this project because I thought it would be fun. But boy was I wrong. Ill get into why it wasn’t fun throughout the post.
Like every other project we had 6 milestones and steppingstones to accomplish for this project. And like other science projects milestone 1 is always a mind map. I’m actually not really a big fan of mind map. I don’t really see how there useful. Anyways, we had to make a mind map about what we already know about atoms and matter and any questions we had about it. We also split into groups to share our knowledge.
About a week into this project one of my friends got COVID meaning that I would have to self isolate for 2 weeks which made the project 10 times harder. I dont know how to code very well meaning I couldn’t get help form my class mates making it even harder. We had a test to do for milestone 3 which I did easily. Milestone 4 was also pretty easy. You just had to say what was going to be in your game. I handed that in no problem.
The coding for this project killed me. This is why I did not like this project. I hate scratch as a software because it is slow and my progress randomly deleted multiple times. Sometimes my program would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. Within the last 2 days before it was due I finished my game and was very proud of myself. The next day in class when I was tweaking somethings in my game my scratch servers crashed. This happened before so I thought nothing of it. I searched Scratch in a new tab but I was signed out of my account. I put in my information and It wouldn’t sign me in. idk if my account got banned, or my game got deleted or what. All I know is that its gone and I can’t post a link here.
My game was called “shoot em up.” It was a first person shooter game and the goal of the game was to shoot all of the atoms and get the best possible score. In the Home Screen you can press G to play or P to learn how to play. There are 3 levels each on 15 seconds long. One level one starts you have 15 seconds to shoot 15 water molecules and get the best score. Once 15 seconds pass round 2 starts where the balls move faster but this time they where Helium particles. Level 3 is moving faster and you need to shoot oxygen particles. It was way better then I’m explaining it. I had each kind of model and the creator of the model. The particles moved around the screen at different speeds and before I got logged out I was trying to add heat so throughout the round you had to be more accurate.
Questioning and Predicting:
I think I extended on this competency because I had to work on this all by myself and I went to google to extend my learning and solve my curiosity on how the coding worked to better understand the program. My class time wasn’t used effectively because I wasn’t in class for 2 weeks but I used my time wisely at home.
Scientific Communication:
I feel accomplished on this competency because I communicated my ideas through the scratch program and represented it (kind of) through digital technology. I had 3 different particles ( H20, Oxygen, Helium) I only really had 1 state of matter and didn’t really show it to well. There s particle motion and a representation of historical models and names.
Recognizing and Analyzing:
I feel accomplished on this one too because I made a functioning game with basic user controls and the use of logic patterns (coding) but lacking a bit of logical conditions. There was no gravity and the particles weren’t attracted to each other but I was going to work on that!
In conclusion I strongly dislike scratch and hope to never use it again. I did however learn a lot about atoms and chemistry which I enjoyed. Hopefully no one else gets COVID so I can work on the next project during class and hopefully the next project is fun. (I saw something about comics in one of the upcoming projects!!😃)
anyways, Later 👋