Quiz Magic

Quiz Magic is a program I wrote a few years ago for some teachers who wanted to be able to set custom-made starter and plenary activities in their lessons based on key-words. 

Quiz Magic simply takes a keyword, or sentence and allows you to perform up to four actions:

1. Remove vowels, eg: "SUPERDECADE GAMES" to "SPRDCD GMS".
2. Mixup, eg: "SUPERDECADE GAMES" to "SUACRPDDEEE GAEMS". This scrambles the middle letters of the words, but leaves the first and last the same. This sort of anagram is weirdly easy to read so long as the word in question is know to the reader.
3. Anagram, eg: "SUPERDECADE GAMES" to "DEAUESRDCPE MEGSA". This turns all the words into anagrams and is much more difficult to work out.
4. Substitution, eg: "SUPERDECADE GAMES" to "5UP3RD3C4D3 G4M35".

All of the functions can be chained one after the other, for example to create an anagram with the vowels removed.

If this is something that you need in your life then the executable and source code is available on my OneDrive by either clicking the image or following the link.

Should I ever decide to work on this app again then I shall either add functionality to allow bulk uploading of words from a spreadsheet, or indeed, make it available as a web app.

If you are still with us, then you might like to read about my Dementia Day Clock, or other vaguely education-related posts.

Five coding sites for kids

Five sites to get kids coding. While I recommend that kids start coding with Scratch, each of these sites are great introductions to programming for younger kids.  #codingforkids

1. Blockly Games

Blocky features a series of puzzles that all require some coding skill to be solved.  Skills covered include repetition, conditions, iteration and parameter passing.  The puzzles include guiding a bird to pick up a worm so she can feed her nest; guiding an astronaut through a space maze; and shooting targets in a pond.

This puzzle soon gets more tricky with targets requiring more than one shot to kill. Time to learn a repeat loop.

Blockly is a Google project aimed at introducing programming concepts and are quite self-pacing.  By the end of the course, kids are writing real lines of JavaScript code.


2. Code Studio

Code Studio from Code.org contains many hours of Computing Science fun for kids and adults aged four and above.  The concept is similar to Blockly Games above, and covers many similar concepts.  Students can work trough a series of games at their own pace with each concept introduced by a relevant video and reinforced with multiple choice questions at the end.  This is an ideal site for getting girls coding before they hit puberty (and social pressures start to rule their lives).

Concepts are reinforced with a multiple choice quiz after each challenge.

Various different themed challenges from helping an 'Angry bird' through a maze to collecting pollen and nectar as a busy bee.

There is also a Spelling Bee section - get it! Use your coding skills to spell the correct word.

Some key programming concepts such as repetition are brought to life.

A really nice looking interface and those creatures look like they are from 'Angry Birds'.

It's not just solving mazes, you can also draw pictures and make stories.  Children exposed to Code Studio will be ready for Scratch within a couple of hours.

3. Code Combat

Code Combat is a great site for getting kids coding, while aimed at older kids than Blockly and Code Studio above, it is a useful experience for kids before they are exposed to traditional written languages.  I did a couple of blog posts about Code Combat a few months ago.

Learn some programming basics whilst playing an adventure game.

One of my students managed to complete all the levels in Code Combat and has now taken GCSE Computing and is doing well learning some Python and JavaScript.


4. PoopScoop

Shameless plug alert!  PoopScoop is one of my own creations.  It is a puzzle game for Windows in which you use programming statements to solve each maze.  The aim of each level is to find and 'scoop' each 'poop' that some thoughless animal has left lying around. There are pits to jump over, walls to push over, blocks to push, magnets to avoid and pools of water to drain.  If the thought of scooping poop gets your students a little giddy then there is a slightly tamer - LitterPik - version instead.

There is also a level designer so kids can create their own puzzles.

Search this blog for PoopScoop

Introducing PoopScoop for Windows.

5. Shapes

Shapes is a programming language designed to get kids interested in programming through drawing colourful images. The language is simply defined using geometric shapes: circle, square, triangle, ellipse, line etc and a coordinate system that uses both relative and absolute coordinates.  If you remember the various incarnations of the language LOGO, then you will recognise Shapes - only Shapes is much easier to start drawing interesting images.  The installation package comes with a user guide for teachers and I have plenty of example code should you need it.

An image programming using the SHAPES language.

Shapes would be useful both to teach programming concepts as well as in mathematics to teach about coordinate systems.  I would be very interested to hear from Mathematicians who have used it in their lessons.

You can download Shapes from this website.  Shapes was written by T Street the author of this blog.

If you made it this far, then you might like to search this blog for other interesting posts:

Circles - a tool for teaching mathematics
The Little Man Computer - for teaching GCSE and A level Computer Science "Low Level Programming"
Goliath - a text adventure game ripe for hacking

#edtech
#codinginschools

Cool things found on The Web today

(or, how I spent my weekend)

Rock-Paper-Scissors

This version of the game Rock-Paper-Scissors (or 'Paper-Scissors-Stone' in my day), is a demonstration of basic artificial intelligence.  Play against a computer opponent who uses the last 200,000 rounds of experience against you.  There are two modes of play: 'Novice' learns from your own tendencies, where 'Veteran' builds knowledge based on thousands of games against people all over the world.  Good luck!

Earth and Moon Viewer

This site from John Walker allows you to view the Earth from Space, or how it looks right now.  You can view from any latitude or longitude; from any preset city; comprehensive list of satellites, or from the sun or moon.  Comprehensive weather data can be superimposed onto the image.  In addition to viewing the earth, you can also view the moon (as the name of the site might suggest).

Morse Code Machine

A simple morse code generator from boyslife.org.  Hit the buttons to generate the morse pattern or play a game to test your morse knowledge. .-.. --- .-..

Questionaut

Questionaut is a beautiful learning game from BBC bitesize games.  Suitable for 7 to 11 year olds, the aim of questionaut is to guide your very cute avatar through a series of animated puzzles.  The first level requires you to build a hot-air balloon so that you can travel up to each new level.  On each level, by interacting with the characters in the various strange worlds you will encounter, you must earn more 'fuel' for your balloon by answer questions correctly.  Once five questions are answered, you can carry on your way.

Curvy in HTML5

A frustrating puzzle that seems simple enough.  Rotate the hexagons to form continuous paths from one to the next.  Just when you think you are doing well, you discover that one path no longer works and the whole pattern needs rearranging.  Various levels of play allow you to create more and more challenging puzzles to fit your needs.

Th...th....th...that's all folks (until next time...)

Lessons learned from lino

I have been experimenting with lino in the classroom.  Lino provides an online collaborative noticeboard in which you and your students can post 'stickies' (think post-it notes).  I have used it as a collaborative space for year 7 students to share ideas for a project and by year 11 students as a revision board.  It could be used as a noticeboard for class announcements, share links, videos etc, or anywhere you have the need for a community noticeboard.

GCSE Computing student revision noticeboard

Features of Lino.

• No login required.
• Visitors can post stickies.
• Your canvas can be private; available to anyone this the link; or public (list on Lino).
• Post stickies by email.
• A fairly wide range of canvas backgrounds including adding your own background image.
• Several different coloured stickies, including transparent. 
• Supports RSS feeds.
• Multiple canvasses.
• Android and Apple apps available as well as the web app.

Lessons learned from using Lino.

• As with all collaborative technology, students may feel the need to troll each other, or go off task.  You need to be prepared for this and allow them to get this excitment out of their system before they begin to respect it as a useful collaborative tool.
• Students may feel the need to create their own accounts and set up their own boards.  This should be encouraged however there are safety issues you should discuss with the students and the privacy settings shown below should be explained.
• Once you have finished with a canvas, you can lock it to 'show stickies to everyone' (but other people cannot post.  This will prevent trolling.
• You need not list your canvas as a public canvas.  Make sure you deselect this as it is selected by default (naughty Lino).

Carefully choose your canvas settings.

#edtech
#education
#noticeboards
#collaboration