Hi blog readers in this blog post I will be talking about our Scimatics project Tectonic Chances. In this project we are m asking a board game about tectonic plates and natural disasters. This is my mid project post so I will only be posting about what we’ve done so far so it wont be the driving question or stuff like that.

At the start of the post ill be talking about making the game spaces and then our game pieces and then making the game board after ill talk about the driving question of the project and finally some questions I have to answer for the project.

This is our game rules me and the rest of our group Owen and Kadin. Chances- when you land on a chance spot you draw from the chance card pile, follow the instructions of the chance card.Volcanoes-  you land on a spot with a volcano on it, and you discover magma flowing through the mantle go back to the start and lose a life.Tsunamis- you land on a tsunami spaces and you discover a converging plate boundary caused it, you have to go back 4 spaces and do what the next space says.Earthquakes- you land on an earthquake space and you discover a convergent plate boundary, skip a turn.Hot spots- you land on a hot spot revealing a hot spot volcano, move forward 2 spaces.Fault lines- you land on a fault lines spot, roll a die trying to figure out what fault it is #1,2 are a reverse fault, #3,4 are a normal fault, #5,6 are a strike-slip fault whatever number you roll is also the amount of spaces you go forward.Slab pull- you land on a slab pull space. Layers of earth- you land on a layers of earth spot, you made a fantastic scientific discovery about the layers of the earth and the the temperature of the core, gain a life.Continental drift- you land on a continental drift space, have reached the end of the world the continent you’re on will float you to safety, you win the game.Continental – continental plates- you land on a continental- continental plates space, 2 continental- continental plates collided creating a mountain go back to the start. Lose a life- you land on a lose a life space, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed you, lose a life.Gain a life- you land on a gain a life space, you save someone from a falling tree in an 7.0 earthquake, gain a life.

This is all of our game pieces that we decided as a a group to make.

1 die                                                                                                                                               5 characters                                       36 chance cards

• 6 puddle of death cards-You stepped in a puddle of lava, you lose a life 
• 6 core of earth cards-You fell into the core of the earth, roll a die to determine how many lives you lose 
• 6 Convection currents cards- You get sucked into the earth by a convection current switch spots with someone of your choice
• 6 Transform faults cards- a transform fault appears and starts moving, switch spots with the person closest to you
• 6 smarts cards-You tested a theory about tectonic plates and were correct, gain a life
• 6 lawsuit cards-You copyrighted a theory about oceanic plates and someone else used it, you sue them and win the settlement, roll a die to see how many lives you gain.

Making the game board we used materials such as cardboard, felts and hot glue and paper.  Our group had lots of fun doing this part of the project I made the volcano out of cardboard and I put some coloured red paper on it. And kadin put the orange paper on it. Overall I thin the game board turned out really good.

The driving question was how are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design. Well the mathematical elements were used by doing the probability section in the pages document. To do science part we included a bunch of concepts about tectonic plates. I did not really explain it that well so here’s a better explanation we were told to add at least 10 science concepts we did way more than that so that was section of including science to our game. The math part was we had to have at least three probability things we had about 12.

I have to answer a couple  of questions for the project so here they are.                                                                                                                             Evaluating: Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence. We included way more than 10 key science concepts with all the game pieces and chance cards. Obviously the tectonic plates evidence were used in our game as it has a volcano total wave and a earthquake spot.

Questioning and predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest. I must admit I did not use all my class time efficiently probably like five percent was not used efficiently as I was caught doing other stuff. But if I was caught doing that I was working productively at the same time.

Understanding and solving: Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving. In each turn a science concept will happen. Here is the probability of that.

• You have a 1 in 6 probability of drawing any chance card from the chance card pile
• You have a 1 in 6 probability of rolling any number on the die
• You have a 6 in 30 chance of landing on a chance space
• You have a 2 in 30 of chance landing on a earthquake space 
• You have a 2 in 30 chance of landing on hot spot
• You have a 2 in 30 chance of landing on fault line
• You have a 3 in 30 chance of landing on a tsunami space
• You have a 3 in 30 chance to lose a life
• You have a 2 in 30 chance to gain a life
• You have a 2 in 30 chance to land on layers of earth
• You have a 2 in 30 chance to land on slab pull
• You have a 3 in 30 chance to land on a volcano spot
• You have a 1 in 30 chance of landing on continental drift
• You have a 1 in 30 chance to land on the start space 
• The probability of rolling a 6 and landing on a chance space is 1/6 x 6/30= 6/180 or 1/30
• The probability of rolling a 1 and landing on a earthquake space 1/6 x 6/2= 6/12 or 1/2
• The probability of landing on a volcano space and tsunami space 3/30 x 3/30= 9/900 or 1/100
• The probability of landing on a hot spot space and a slab pull space 2/30 x 2×30= 4/900 or 1/225
• The probability of rolling a 3 and a 5 1/6 x 1/6= 1/36

I have to also add my mind map its what I knew at the start of the project and then answering some questions.

Thank you for reading my blog post if you would like to check out the members of my groups post its in these links they might have a different approach at the project then I do: Kadin, Owen.