CS 121

Educational game learning objectives

During this semester you will design and develop an educational computer game for one of our clients based on one (or more) of the following learning objective:

MI-Maps:
Student should be able to describe:
  1. how geographers use mapping to represent places and natural and human phenomena in the world. (Ideas for game designers: Include maps that require use of map keys / symbols.)
  2. patterns of settlement by using historical and modern maps (e.g., coastal and river cities and towns in the past and present, locations of megacities – modern cities over 5 million, such as Mexico City, and patterns of agricultural settlements in South and North America).

MI-Tech
Student should be able to explain how communities are affected positively or negatively by changes in technology (e.g., Canada with regard to mining, forestry, hydroelectric power generation, agriculture, snowmobiles, cell phones, air travel).

MI-Ecosystem
Students should be able to identify ecosystems and explain why some are more attractive for humans to use than are others (e.g., mid-latitude forest in North America, high latitude of Peru, tropical forests in Honduras, fish or marine vegetation in coastal zones).(Ideas for game designers: Focus on “urbanization” (a major theme) – how cities must meet the challenges of increased need for housing and services; negative impact of growing cities – pollution, habitat loss, etc;)

CA-Tectonics
Student should understand that
  1. the evidence of plate tectonics is derived from the fit of the continents; the location of earthquakes, volcanoes, and midocean ridges; and the distribution of fossils, rock types, and ancient climatic zones.
  2. the earth is composed of several layers; a cold, brittle lithosphere; a hot, convecting mantle; and a dense, metallic core.
  3. lithospheric plates the size of continents and oceans move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle.
  4. earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the crust called faults and that volcanoes and fissures are locations where magma reaches the surface.
  5. major geologic events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from plate motions.
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CA-Thermal
Student should understand that
  1. energy can be carried from one place to another by heat flow or by waves, including water, light and sound waves, or by moving objects.
  2. when fuel is consumed, most of the energy released becomes heat energy.
  3. heat flows in solids by conduction and in fluids by conduction and convection.

CA-Ecology
Student should understand that:
  1. energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then from organism to organism through food webs.
  2. matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the food web and between organisms and the physical environment.
  3. populations of organisms can be categorized by the functions they serve in an ecosystem.
  4. the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as light, water, temperatures, and soil composition.

CA-MA
Student should be able to use fractions and ratios including
  1. Interpret and use ratios in different contexts (e.g., batting averages) to show the relative sizes of two quantities, using appropriate notations (a/b, a to b, a:b).
  2. Use proportions to solve problems; use cross-multiplication to solve such problems.
  3. Calculate given percentages of quantities, and solve problems involving discounts. Solve problems involving rates, average speed, distance, and time. (These involve fractions or can involve fractions.)

HI-CS
Student should understand binary "encoding" of numbers and (possibly) simple binary arithmetic. (Note to designers: student have trouble understanding binary "numbers" so the game should present binary as a code.)