Making Game Images

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Lesson Pathway, Standards and Practices

Standards (click one)

Common Core Math Standards

7.RP.A.1: Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units.
8.G.A.1: Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations.

CSTA Standards

1B-AP-14: Observe intellectual property rights and give appropriate attribution when creating or remixing programs.
1B-IC-21: Use public domain or creative commons media, and refrain from copying or using material created by others without permission.
2-AP-16: Incorporate existing code, media, and libraries into original programs, and give attribution.
3A-AP-18: Create artifacts by using procedures within a program, combinations of data and procedures, or independent but interrelated programs.
3A-AP-20: Evaluate licenses that limit or restrict use of computational artifacts when using resources such as libraries

Oklahoma Standards

OK.7.GM.4.1: Describe the properties of similarity, compare geometric figures for similarity, and determine scale factors resulting from dilations.
OK.7.GM.4.2: Apply proportions, ratios, and scale factors to solve problems involving scale drawings and determine side lengths and areas of similar triangles and rectangles.
OK.8.AP.A.01: Design algorithms in natural language, flow and control diagrams, comments within code, and/or pseudocode to solve complex problems.

Textbook Alignment

IM.Alg1.4.2
IM.8.2.1
IM.8.1.3
IM.8.1.2
IM.8.1.1
IM.7.1.5
IM.7.1.1
Decimal Points in Products

(Also available for WeScheme)

Students choose, import, scale and orient images for their game, practicing reading comments to make sense of and begin to edit a large body of code.

Lesson Goals

Students will be able to:

Apply previous knowledge of functions to new situations
Use reasoning skills to select appropriate functions and combine their effects

Student-Facing Lesson Goals

I can use different functions to transform images.
I can write definitions for my transformed images.

Materials

Preparation

Make sure all materials have been gathered
Decide how students will be grouped in pairs

Key Points for the Facilitator

Discuss copyright and fair use guidelines with your students.
Instructional time may vary based on students’ experience with using Google Image Search.
Check beforehand for any issues the school Internet security blocker might cause with searching for images.
There are two ways of importing images: linking directly to the image on the web or downloading the image to Google Drive and then using the "Insert" button. See the "Linking Images Guide" below for more information on linking directly.
Encourage students to focus on finding and scaling each image as needed before moving on to the next one.

Language Table

Types

Functions

Values

Number

+, -, *, /, num-expt, num-sqr, num-sqrt

4, -1.2, 2/3, pi

String

string-length, string-repeat, string-contains

"hello", "91"

Boolean

<, <>, <=, >=, <, >, ==, <>, >=

true, false

Image

star, triangle, circle, square, rectangle, rhombus, ellipse, regular-polygon, radial-star, text, overlay, above, beside, rotate, scale, flip-horizontal, flip-vertical

🔵🔺🔶

Click here to see the prior unit-based version.

Glossary

define: to associate a descriptive name with a value
function: a mathematical object that consumes inputs and produces an output
image: a type of data for pictures
interactions area: the right-most text box in the Editor, where expressions are entered to evaluate
string: a data type for any sequence of characters between quotation marks (examples: "hello", "42", "this is a string!")

🔗The Game Starter File 15 minutes

Overview

This activity is primarily about review and reading comprehension, in which students open a large and unfamiliar file and must make sense of it using what they’ve seen before.

Launch

Students should have their workbook, pencil, and be logged into code.pyret.org and have their completed “Game Design” worksheet.

By now you’ve learned about defining values, composing functions, and reading contracts. Taken together, that’s a lot of code you’re now able to understand! It’s time to flex your reading skills, and look at the file you’ll be working with to build your video game.

This file has code you haven’t seen before! And that’s ok! For now, see what parts you recognize, and make sure you understand them.

Investigate

With their partner, students should load the Blank Game Starter File (Pyret).

Notice and Wonder

As students investigate the Game Starter File file with their partner, ask students to record what they Notice, and then what they Wonder.

Synthesize

What familiar things did you see in the Game Starter File file?
What were some unfamiliar things? Any idea what they might do? Answers vary: new functions, comments, images
What data type is GAME-TITLE? What data type is BACKGROUND? GAME-TITLE is a String, BACKGROUND is an Image
What does SCREENSHOT return in the Interactions area? An image of the BACKGROUND, PLAYER, TARGET, and DANGER all together
Did anyone try pressing "Run"? What happens when you press "Run"? Allow students to discuss what they see and what connections they see with the code
- What do you think image-url does? Answers vary: It consumes a String, which is a URL (an image location on the Internet) and produces the Image inside our program

What is SCREENSHOT?

The Game Starter File defines several image values, such as BACKGROUND, PLAYER, etc. These definitions are using the running game, which appears when you click "Run". SCREENSHOT is defined as a fixed composition of the game images, placing each of them on top of the background at various (x,y) coordinates. It is used to give students a chance to see their characters onscreen before they’ve gotten them moving, and to give teachers an opportunity to review coordinates. Other than the scaling, it is not in any way connected to the running game, so changes made to SCREENSHOT will not impact the game that appears when clicking "Run" and the location of the characters on the background in the screenshot is random and irrelevant.

🔗Finding Your Game Images flexible

Overview

This activity is all about finding the right images for students' games. Since the internet never has exactly the right image, students' need to get their games just right motivates them to confront the need for dilation, rotation, and reflection of the images they find. This, in turn feeds back into their understanding of Contracts and Function Composition.

Launch

Fair Use Diagram, Source: https://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item6247 $Fair Use Diagram, Source:\nwww.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item6247$ 🖼Show image The students will be using images from the Internet for their game, and while this falls entirely under the "Educational Use" umbrella of Fair Use Guidelines, it is still important to make sure students of all ages understand the purpose of copyright law and the differences between educational and commercial purposes.

Guide the students through finding an image, saving it to their Drive, importing it into their program, and defining the image value as PLAYER. Students will change this image later on their own, this is just for teaching purposes.

How to find and save images to Google Drive….

In your favorite search engine (we recommend DuckDuckGo), search for an image and then click "Images". Click "All Types" and select "Transparent" (In Google Image Search, it’s under "Color -> Transparent"). This will filter and display images that have a transparent background, appearing as a light white/grey checkerboard pattern behind the character.

Finding Images on GIS, Source: Google Image Search, https://images.google.com $Finding Images on\nGIS, Source: Google Image Search, images.google.com$ 🖼Show image

Once an image has been selected, click it to expand and save the image to Google Drive. For file management, students may want to create a folder to store their game images.

If using a Chromebook, this is done by right-clicking and selecting "Google Drive" on the left for the save location.
On a PC or Mac follow this, quick guide to saving images to drive.

Once the image is saved to Google Drive, it can be brought into the program by using the "Insert" button. This will automatically bring in the image using the image-url function, and students can run the code to see the image.

Investigate

What happens if the image we find needs to be made bigger or smaller? What if it needs to be rotated, or flipped?

Students can define the image as a value and make changes to it with the image manipulation functions scale, rotate, flip-horizontal, and flip-vertical.

Strategies for English Language Learners

MLR 8 - Discussion Supports: As students discuss, rephrase responses as questions and encourage precision in the words being used to reinforce the meanings behind some of the functions, such as scale and flip-horizontal.

With their partner, students search the Internet for images to use in their game. They will need 4 images, one for each visual element of their game:

BACKGROUND
PLAYER
DANGER
TARGET

Students should:

Save the chosen images to their Drive
Bring them into the programming environment
Define the images as values
Plan out how to resize and reorient them in their game
Make sure the final version of each image is defined as either BACKGROUND, TARGET, DANGER, or PLAYER

When finished, students should be able to type SCREENSHOT in the interactions window and see all four of their images appropriately sized and oriented.

These materials were developed partly through support of the National Science Foundation, (awards 1042210, 1535276, 1648684, and 1738598). Bootstrap:Algebra by the Bootstrap Community is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Unported License. This license does not grant permission to run training or professional development. Offering training or professional development with materials substantially derived from Bootstrap must be approved in writing by a Bootstrap Director. Permissions beyond the scope of this license, such as to run training, may be available by contacting contact@BootstrapWorld.org.