Collaboration, Cooperation, Coding connected with Gaming

 A couple of years ago I came across this post by Colleen Graves on Instructables “Collaborative Makey Makey Sensory Maze.” It was such a cool project and it inspired me to make a collaborative Makey Makey maze for my kindergarten students for a solar system unit we were doing. I shared that project in a previous post: Coding, MakeyMakey and a Field Trip Around the Solar System. This project was so much fun to make and included the kindergarteners' voices and recordings with facts about what they learned about the different planets during our research but the coding and the building of the map was done by me and not by the students. I have always wanted to do a project where the students were the ones to code, design and build an interactive conductive board with Makey Makey, this year I had the chance with my fifth grade students.

For this project, fifth graders were challenged to work in collaborative groups and design, code and build cooperative, interactive video games. Students worked in design teams using different conductive materials and technology tools to create their interactive games.  Their game needed to be a cooperative game, two players that needed to work together to win the game.

The project started with introducing students, or reintroducing some students, to the Scratch coding program. Scratch is a free online coding program designed at MIT’s Media Lab. Scratch coding is a way for students to learn the coding language, as well as learning how to design, solve problems, iterate, share their work and amplify their voice.

Fifth graders explored the different code blocks, characters and background options. They also spent time playing games created with Scratch and shared to the Scratch site by students from around the world. This helped spark ideas about games that they could make themselves and allowed them to explore the code they would need to make their games. Scratch is a wonderful tool to use when integrating the Shared Foundation of Collaborate into the learning experience. When exploring the resources in Scratch “Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by: using a variety of communication tools and resources (Learner III.B.1) and establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.” (Learner III.B.2) Fifth graders connected and explored the work of other learners from around the world on the Scratch Explore page, seeing what students were able to build and because Scratch is an open sourced coding platform, use some of the code that other students created. They also were able to build on the knowledge they had about coding, learn new coding techniques and build new code to share in the games.

Next students were put into their game building groups. Groups had a brainstorming session where they came up with ideas about what type of game they wanted to create; a maze, avoidance, where the players had to move to avoid an object, or a collect game, where players needed to collect objects in the game, or a combination of these different types of games. They also need a theme of the game and to design their game board. Then each group decided who would do each job in their game design and building. Some students focused on the coding, they would create and test all the code to make their game design work. Game board builders focused on wiring and building their interactive game boards using conductive materials and the Makey Makey. Finally the designer worked on the theme of their game, including background, characters, art and design of the game board. The group brainstorming and planning process focused on “Learners working productively with others to solve problems by: soliciting and responding to feedback from others” (Learner III.C.1). Fifth graders needed to listen to each other, give feedback and discuss options and come to a consensus on their game. They also needed to decide who was going to take on each of the roles to ensure that their games could be completed in the time allotted.

Now that each team had their design, theme, and plan set, they got to building their games! The coders worked on coding the games to work. When they were challenged with a code they couldn’t figure out how to execute, they talked with fellow classmates, searched the Scratch website for similar games to look at their code and searched Scratch message boards for advice. Through this iterative process, learners “actively contribute to group discussions” (Learner III.D.1) and fifth graders identify collaborative opportunities by: “deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction” (Learner III.A.3).

The game board designers worked with a variety of materials to make a large game board that would lay on the floor that players activated with their feet. They used conductive materials like copper sheets and conductive HVAC tape that were connected to wires that students cut and stripped and connected to a Makey Makey. A Makey Makey is an external plug and play circuit board that allows conductive materials to connect with a computer and coding that when triggered the circuit is completed and the code is triggered in the Scratch game. The game boards were triggered when the conducted materials were stepped on and connected to the instructions in the code. The game board designers tested and retested as they added the different layers of their game boards to ensure their buttons were working at each stage of the building process.

The designers were coordinating and working with each of the groups. They were working with the coders to find background images, characters, villains and objects for the players to collect in the game. They were also working with the game board builders to make sure the layout of the game boards worked and that the designs and illustrations added to the game boards fit with the theme of the game.

The fifth graders recognized throughout this process that they would not have been able to complete this on their own. They needed each other to share the building, coding and wiring. They also needed each other to talk through challenges and ideas as they were building their code, wiring and testing their boards and connecting all the pieces together to make a working interactive game board. Learners “recognized learning as a social responsibility” (Learner III.D.2).

After several sessions of building, coding, wiring, testing, editing and rethinking their game plans all their games were complete and it was time for game day share out! Each of the laptops with the Scratch program and game was projected onto one of the screens, connected their boards and students had a blast playing each others’ games!