Chemistry Coding ⚛️
How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory?
Like many adolescents my age, I enjoy playing video games. Luckily for me and the rest of PLP 8, this project was all about making video games. But there was one catch: The game had to be about chemistry.
But before we got into the programming, which I will explain in a minute, we had to learn some science. We spent the first week of the project attaining knowledge about the Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT) and the Atomic Theory. We also learned about some of the people behind the study of atoms such as Democritus, Dalton, Bohr and Rutherford. Half way through the project we took a test about the subjects we learned.
We programmed the games using Scratch. If you are unaware, Scratch is a popular coding website designed for kids. The site is really easy to use which was great for us. I decided to make a trivia game, where you answer questions to build a nuclear bomb for the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. I also gave my game the theme of “Stereotypical America”, mostly just because I thought it would be funny. I included a patriotic “You Win” screen, a version of the Star Spangled Banner played on electric guitar, and an intro screen so American, you could smell the freedom.
When I started making the game, I realized it wouldn’t be how I wanted it, but I soon adapted my original plan to make it even better. Originally, I wanted the game to ask you a question about atoms, matter or density. Then, you would tap on one of four possible answers, before revealing the correct answer. What I ended up with was more of an open-choice test where the player types in what they think is the correct answer.
Overall, I really like the way my game turned out. After everyone finished their games, we had an arcade day where we went around and played everyone’s games. We posted links to our games in basecamp so that we could all access each others games. Here is a link to my game. I will also link some of the games that I enjoyed.
Competencies
Questioning and Predicting
This competency was mostly about our research on the topics we were learning such as the atomic theory, KMT and properties of density. We used Questioning and predicting in at the beginning of the project when we had to conduct a scientific experiment where we had to determine the density of a gemstone. This helped us answer the driving question as we had to make predictions about the behaviour of matter.
Scientific Communication
For this competency, we had to be able to explain the scientific formulas that we had been researching. I represented my research in my game. This helps me understand the driving question because we need to be able to express our discoveries on the behaviour of matter and how it is affected by the KMT.
Reasoning and Analyzing
For the 3rd and final competency, we had to demonstrate an understanding of logic. One example of this was in the final product as my game was made using code. This answers the driving question as this competency is sort of like providing evidence for how the behaviour of matter can be explained using the KMT.
Games that I liked