Introduction
GOOD MORNING VIETNAM OR WHERE EVER YOU ARE! For any of you that have lived through the 80s you will get that reference. I know, I’ve been gone for a long time, but I’m back, and I have a new topic I’ve been required to tell you about, mysterious things like coding and the Kinetic Molecular Theory! I know, big words right, well that’s why I’m here! Your own personal dictionary just longer and more mind numbingly boring.
The Kinetic Molecular Theory
So, what is the Kinetic Molecular Theory? Well to give it to you in short, the kinetic molecular theory states that all particles are in constant motion, and that can depend based on how much kinetic energy the particles have, that can determine what kind of state of matter the material is in, for example if the material was a solid the particles would have only so much energy to vibrate in a certain amount of space. Now you might be thinking, why would that have anything to do with coding? Good question! PLP as you know has its ways of integrating technology into the learning, and what my teachers came up with was… A GAME! And to make it with… I give you Scratch! The buggiest thing I’ve ever used!
Coding… AHHHHHHHH!
See, to give you some context I had no knowledge of coding so I was confused from the get go. I had also made the mistake of getting rid of the tutorial before I knew that it was a tutorial and it didn’t come back so… yeah, I was off to a great start. And to keep PLP to its core it needed a story so I began by making characters, I had settled on the quiz type of game. In short you would answer questions and then if you got a certain amount right you would move on to the next level and repeat until you won the game. The story was that all of the oxygen molecules had disappeared and a nitrogen molecule had to save them and the world, a.k.a your average Disney movie plot. Anyways, after I had settled on a theme and characters I could then move on to the coding, and as I stated before, that did not start well. The hilarious thing is that in all that time, a guy pretty much glued to YouTube in my free time never thought to look up a tutorial! Anywho, I started to code and after a while I had a good start and then my nemesis arrived, THE BUGS! Dun dun dunnnnn!!! One day I get to class and open up my project and just like Heath Ledger as the Joker says, “its, its gone”, it had disappeared! Worse Scratch wouldn’t let me back into the website, I tried opening a new tab, nothing! With that option done I had to improvise. I went to the teacher and asked if I could turn it into a board game and it was approved.
The Board Game
Now, in terms of construction it was fairly easy to make. I had found a relatively large piece of paper and had draw a course out, kind of like a CandyLand path. Then, I set about making the questions, that if answered correctly would help you move forward a space. Answer wrong, and you would lose your turn. There were also bonus questions, for example, who created the Saturn model of the atom? We also learned about atoms to an extent. I got my pieces together and scrapped the idea of the nitrogen molecule because I wanted to have a multi-player game. I settled on a proton, a neutron, and an electron. And with that, to put it in the words of Shackleton, “I’ve done it, dammed the admiralty!”
Exittro… I don’t know I lost the word!
The way our attention spans are waning, if you have made it through this Catholic wedding ceremony, I’m proud. I thank you for reading my post. I hope that you have a very good day. Frank, cue the curtains!