Term 1

Introduction 

My name is Federica and I am a student in Grade 9 Digital Design Class in Emirates International School - Meadows. I have been part of this school for 10 years and I have learnt to use a laptop when I was in year 1. My favorite sport is swimming and I quite enjoy horse riding as well, I am hardworking and like challenges however sometimes I get bored and i don't enjoy writing reflections even though I have to do because it's a criteria. My favorite subject is drama because I don't have to be quite and I can use my voice and talk (which I love to do). My teacher last year was Ms. Veena however this year my teacher is Ms. Enoch, which I actually had in year 7.

Last year in IT we focused mainly on TinkerCAD and 3D printers. TinkerCAD is an online 3D printing tool which you can used to design objects. Our task last year was to create an object which was original and never seen before on the market. We had to sketch two designs, annotate both of them and then evaluate our choices. I decided to make a phone holder which would protect your phone, charge your phone but would look cute at the same time. This term we are going to be exploring scratch. Throughout the term I will try and improve the fact that sometimes I fall behind and don’t meet deadlines, however this term and year I am going to improve that as well as improve my referencing.

The MYP Design Cycle Consists of 4 Stages 

-          -Criterion A (Inquiry and Analysis)

-          -Criterion B (Developing Ideas)

-          -Criterion C (Creating the Solution)

-          -Criterion D (Evaluating) 

Statement of Inquiry:-  Creative computing and design based learning involves creativity, computing, personalizing and collaborating that has evolved through and space to influence audience’s perspective.

Key Concept:- Development

Related Concept:- Innovation and Perspective 

ATL Skills:- Thinking - Creative Thinking & Transfer       

                     Research - Information Literacy 

Global Context:-  Personal and Cultural Expression

What kind of learner am I? 

INTRODUCTION TO SCRATCH - 26/9/2016
LESSON 1

Use problem solving and mathematical skills in an authentic setting

Create an animation incorporating movement and images.

To investigate the use of shapes and motion while creating an animation of a natural habitat.

Animal in its Natural Habitat 

Maze Game 

Cinderella Story - Background Change Task 

Criteria A - Inquiring and Analysing 

Design Situation 

Being able to speak more than one language is very essential in today's world and can be extremely helpful when applying to college, as well as job applications. The world is changing and knowing another language can help you succeed in life, not only career wise but also in life - meet new people and gain new friends. As a student that takes Spanish in school as a second language, the main issue I find is learning the present, past and future tense in verbs and I know I'm not the only one. That is why I decided to create a video which is going to teach and help students practice the tenses in Spanish and how to change the verb according to the sentence. Recently in Spanish we took a test on the verbs and their tenses and there was no one in the class who got more than 7 out of 10. The main cause of this problem is that the when you are changing the verb to fit the tense nearly half the word changes so it is quite difficult to learn all of them. Especially at my age its extremely boring to just sit and try to memories all the verbs or just read a book and remember some words.I have also never seen any game like this before so I think its an original idea. Not only do I think this is going to help all of the people in my Spanish class and give them higher grades but this is going to help anyone who is eager or wants to learn/improve their Spanish. My project is obviously targeted at people who want to learn or improve their Spanish. There isn't really an age rage because children and adults can use the game, even Spanish speaking children can use it when they are young and still learning their mother language. 

Primary Research and Secondary Research 

What will I research for?	Primary or Secondary Research	Why will I research this information?
Questionnaire to my Spanish class	Primary	Using this questionnaire I will be able to see how many people find the tenses in Spanish hard and if they would find my game helpful
Look at books that teach you about the Spanish tenses	Secondary	By looking at books that teach you about Spanish verbs and tenses, this will make sure that when I will be creating my video, I won’t get any verbs wrong and all the information is factual
Interview with my Spanish teacher to help me decide which verbs are more difficult	Primary	This will not only help me by making checking with my Spanish teacher if what I wrote makes sense but it will give me a chance to make my game consist of different levels. She will tell me which verbs are really easy to remember and which ones are more complex and harder to use.
Watch videos on people teaching Spanish verbs	Secondary	I will use this as inspiration to see how interesting the videos are and how I could make mine better. This will also help me decide the layout and the format of my video

Videos 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVH5viwx_-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDbs73KuuAI

I noticed that a lot of the videos are very long and quite boring. Also they are not colorful and you don't get to practice what you learnt in an entertaining way. 

Questionnaire 

Me: Good Morning Ms Samia

Ms Samia: Good Morning Federica

Me: Thank you for taking some time and sitting down with me. I am doing this project in ICT which consists of making a game to help a problem that we want to solve. I thought of Spanish verbs because I remembered when you were teaching us present, past and future tenses, the class found it very hard and didn’t really understand

Ms Samia: Yes, that is very true, Spanish tenses are very difficult for students and anyone who is learning Spanish. It is even difficult for Spanish speaking people as there are so many tenses to remember like simple future, near future etc.

Me: My idea that I have come up with is to create a game using this software called scratch. The game will consist of a scene where the character will have to say something, for example for the past tense, the character will say ‘yesterday I played football’. However, the verb will be left out so it’s going to look like ‘yesterday I ……. Football’, they will be given a choice of verbs and will have to choose correct one.

Ms Samia: That is a great idea. When it’s finished, we could even use it in class.

Me: Thanks Ms. I wanted to talk to you and ask you which verbs I should mainly focus on

Ms. Samia: You should focus mainly on past tense because that is the tense which students get mixed up on. Also use theses verbs which are commonly misunderstood and forgotten about:

·       Puse

·       Fui

·       Tuve

·       Estuve

·       Jugue

·       Anduve

·       Escuche

Me: Thank you for your advice, I will keep it in mind when creating my game.

Ms Samia: I’m glad I helped. Good luck in creating the game and I’m sure it’s going to turn out wonderfully.

Survey to my Spanish class

Looking at the graph, we can see that all of the students in my Spanish class find present, past and future tenses really hard. As well, the majority of the students spend time playing computer games so they would much rather prefer playing an educational game on the computer than reading off a textbook which is extremely boring.

SWOT Analysis of Existing Products 

Design Brief

After analysing different solutions/ products to my problem; learning Spanish tenses. I have decided that I will be creating a game on scratch which will help students practice past, present and future verbs in Spanish. This game is targeted at students in year 9 and 10 who are learning to use all the tenses in their writing and when they talk. I have decided to keep my game related to practicing the verbs instead of learning the verbs because I think people wouldn't really choose a game to learn Spanish, they would rather use YouTube videos or simply google it. I have also chosen to aim it for students in year 9 and 10 simply because in year 8, you don't learn about Spanish past and future tenses, so it wouldn't be helpful to them if they haven't even started learning about them. Also in year 11, the verbs become more complex and students in year 11 have to already know the simple tenses so my game would be to easy for them.My game can be used at home, for practice/ revision before a quiz or assessment or simply for practice. However it can also be at school as a teaching tool by teachers, this way the students can be engaged in the lesson more because it would be a different way of learning and engaging the students, especially students that normally don't contribute in class. My game can also be used by the teacher to know and test how much the student has learnt about the tenses.

My game is going to consist of three levels: Easy - Medium - Hard. The game starts in the easy level where the player is introduced to the character (sprite), there will be a short introduction saying what the game is about and words of motivation e.g. Good luck!. Then the game starts. The game basically works that the sprite is in a location and he has to say what he is doing/what he did/ what he will do. The sentence will be displayed on the screen with the missing verb and below there will be three verbs to choose from. The player will have to choose from the three verbs, if he gets it correct then he passes onto the next question. As the levels increase, the verbs difficulty increase as well. For each level there are three verbs, making a total of 9 verbs. The location of the sprite will change, as well the sprite will change. There isn't a specific order in which the verbs will be asked, however, in each level there is a present, past and future question asked. In the end, there will be a challenging question to see if the player is really smart. All of sentences will be in Spanish - no English translations. I have decided to only make the introduction in English so students can get used to reading and understanding in Spanish because for example in tests there are no English translations. I am really looking forward to making my game and hopefully its going to turn out how I want it.

Criteria B - Developing Ideas 

Design Specification 

Scene 1 

Background	School classroom
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Kids talking
Speech	Hello Students!  You find Spanish hard?  You are bad at tenses?  No need to worry!  In this game we will practice present, past and futures tenses.  There are 3 levels  Easy - Medium - Hard  In each scene you will have to click on the correct verb that fits the sentence  At the end you will have a challenging question Good Luck!  Press the space bar to start
Colour	No color
Action Taking Place	When green flag clicked, speech appears. After she says 'At the end you will have a challenging question', she glides to x: 184 and y: -113 When space bar pressed change background to red

Background	Red background Text saying 'Level 1 - Easy
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Fairy dust
Speech	No speech
Colour	No color
Action Taking Place	When I receive red - change background to red When I receive red - play sound fairy dust

Background	Football Pitch
Sprite Used	Football player Teacher
Music	Crowd Cheering
Speech	…… al fútbol (I play football) Juego Jugué Como Well done!
Colour	When clicked the red box the answer is correct When clicked the purple or blue box the answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Red: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Purple or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Kitchen
Sprite Used	Girl eating food Teacher
Music	None
Speech	ayer .... un bocadillo (Yesterday I ate a sandwhich) comer comi pastel Well done
Colour	When clicked the purple box answer is correct When clicked the red or blue box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Purple: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Red or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Swimming pool
Sprite Used	Boy with his swimming trunks Teacher
Music	None
Speech	Voy a ..... en la piscina (I will swim in the pool) Well done!
Colour	When clicked the red box answer is correct  When clicked the purple or blue box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it –  Red: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Purple or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Red background Text saying 'Level 2' – Medium
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Fairy dust
Speech	No speech
Colour	No colour
Action Taking Place	When I receive red - change background to red When I receive red - play sound fairy dust

Background	Mall
Sprite Used	Women with shopping bags
Music	None
Speech	Voy a …. de compras al cientro comericial (Mall) Hace Ir Bailo Well done!
Colour	When clicked the red box answer is correct When clicked the purple or blue box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Red Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Purple or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Disco
Sprite Used	Woman dancing
Music	Hip hop music
Speech	….. en la discoteca  (Disco)  Bailo Escucho Como
Colour	When clicked the blue box answer is correct When clicked the purple or red box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Blue: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Purple or Red: Sprite says wrong

Background	Living room with sofa
Sprite Used	Boy
Music	None
Speech	Ayer …. La television (TV) Veer Vi Bebí
Colour	When clicked the red box answer is correct When clicked the purple or blue box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Red: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Purple or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Red background Text saying  'Level 3' – Hard
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Fairy dust
Speech	None
Colour	No colour
Action Taking Place	When I receive red - change background to red When I receive red - play sound fairy dust

Background	Bedroom
Sprite Used	Boy
Music	None
Speech	…. Mis deberes Hago Odio Salgo Well done!
Colour	When clicked the purple box answer is correct When clicked the red or blue box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Purple: Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Red or blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Café
Sprite Used	Women
Music	None
Speech	..... un café con mis amigas Bebí Comí Comer
Colour	When clicked the blue box answer is correct When clicked the red or purple box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Blue:  Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Red or purple: Sprite says wrong

Background	Beach
Sprite Used	Teenage girl
Music	Waves
Speech	Me gusta …. el sol Tomo Tomer Salgo
Colour	When clicked the red box answer is correct When clicked the blue or purple box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Red:  Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Blue or purple: Sprite says wrong

Background	Yellow Background Text on it saying ‘Challenging Question ‘
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Drums banging
Speech	None
Colour	None
Action Taking Place	When I receive red - change background to red When I receive red - play sound fairy dust

Background	Cinema
Sprite Used	Group of friends
Music	None
Speech	Ayer .... con mis amigos al cine y .... una  película cómica. ¡... increíble! fui / vimos / fue voy / vi / fue fue / vimos / hay
Colour	When clicked the purple box answer is correct When clicked the blue or red box answer is wrong
Action Taking Place	If clicked the boxes with the words on it – Purple:  Sprite says the correct sentence and says well done Red or Blue: Sprite says wrong

Background	Podium
Sprite Used	Teacher
Music	Applause
Speech	Congratulations! Felicitaciones You have completed all three levels and the challenging question You are now a master in Spanish!
Colour	None
Action Taking Place	Teacher glides to x and y co ordinates