educational projects

[SteveCRM]

In my AP comp class I have to manage a team to make an "Educational" program, so Im guessing some game that uses some math...does anyone have any ideas? Im thinking lander maybe?

btw its console

[CornedBee]

How do you want to make a game on console in windows? Sounds very tedious to me (the windows console support functions suck!)

The problem of lander in particular is that it requires very fine adjustment to land which the console doesn't give you.

You should rather try some mathematical games.

[SteveCRM]

i know im in a class of idiots they have trouble with text!!! arg! well thanks cornedbee

[jim mcnamara]

Except for games like Reader Rabbit, which upper yuppies buy for their kids, most educational games are EXTREMELY poor examples of programming. The reason is that there isn't much money in that market. And the people who write those things aren't game programmers. Compare Reader Rabbit to Diablo II or NeverWinter Nights for instance.

Just create a list of 20 history questions, ask them at random, then compute a percentage correct. With this type of game, you should display the answers as multiple choice (ie, choose A, B ,C) so you can validate user input.

PS: make sure you know the correct answers - teachers become severely torqued about things like that.

[ChuckB]

Hi Steve,
What age group are you targeting for your educational software? The older the student, the more demanding they are and the 'cooler' the program must be...generally speaking.

Target the program for 5 and 6 year-olds and they don't mind using the cursor key to chase some ASCII characters around in console mode. In fact, the less 3D realism, the better they are able to focus...fewer distractions. Remember, if it is really fun and entertaining...its probably not read educational... :-)

Now console games are often dismissed by some, but a very good console game is very difficult to write such that it teaches and entertains simultaneously. Most educational games incidently get poor ratings from educators because they don't educate...even though they may be cool!

With the sound of your team, I would stay away from DirectX/OpenGL...and stick to Console.

Here is a simple idea that would help youngsters to understand the concept of numbers. Use groups of ascii characters to build rods of various lengths and different colors. Construct a scale. Place a '7' rod on the left side. Have the user select combinations of '1', '2' and '3' rods and place them on right side of scale until they are equally balanced. So, the student sees for themself that 7 = 1 + 1 + 2 +3 or
7 = 1 + 3 + 3, etc.
Give points for each different combination.

Students can select rods from a group and add them or remove them.

I say this, because my wife teaches manipulatives to small kids so they learn math concepts early. She believes in introducing them to algebra in 1st and 2nd grade...these rods are great for that purpose.

Regards,
ChuckB

[SteveCRM]

thanks guys!

my team has no idea what a class is...or structs (and I can't do any of the programming...ugh)...

my teacher recommended something like a program to teach how to set the VCR clock (stupid i think)...but something along those lines.

and about graphics...they've done no more than text in a console. I may have to teach them the Ellipse and Rectangle functions, but I think any form of graphics is out of the question.

[CornedBee]

Take the teachers recommendation, it seems to be the only thing your team can handle.