Our most recent Scimatics project has been titled Chemistry Coding. The driving question was “How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and the atomic theories?” In this project we created a coded game using the program Scratch. This game incorporated the Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT). It also helped broaden our understanding of the KMT and the atomic theory. This also improved our coding abilities.

When we began the project, we made a Project Start Mind Map of thoughts, questions, and examples we had. Then we began learning about the KMT and the atomic theory. We also did a Gemstone Identification Challenge during that phase. Once we had gathered enough knowledge we made models of three different atoms that would be used in our games and took a test on what we had learned. 

At that point, we were able to begin learning about how to use Scratch. We then wrote our Plan For Scratch Game we would code (this would slightly differ from my actual game). Once that was finished, we could finally start coding our games. Mine took a long time and was very complicated, but I had fun making it and I am very proud of what I created. Click here to play.

After the games were complete, we all played each other’s games and gave feedback. We also created a Project End Mind Map.

This is my reflection on each of the curricular competencies:

This project was really fun and it taught me all about the KMT and the atomic theory, as well as how to code in Scratch. To answer the driving question, the atomic theory explains what atoms are and what they are made of, and the KMT can be used to explain the movement of atoms.