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(Also available in Pyret)

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

  • Let’s use functions to transform images so that we can use them in our games!

Materials

Supplemental Materials

Preparation

  • Students should have their completed “Game Design” work.

  • Check beforehand for any issues the school Internet security blocker might cause with searching for images.

Key Points for the Facilitator

  • There are two ways to import images in Pyret. We recommend downloading the image to Google Drive and then using the "Insert" button, rather than linking directly to the image on the web, so that your game will work in perpetuity, regardless of what happens to the image on the web. See the Quick Guide to Saving Images to Drive for more information.

  • Discuss copyright and fair use guidelines with your students.

  • Encourage students to focus on finding and scaling each image as needed before moving on to the next one.

  • Instructional time may vary based on students’ experience with using Google Image Search.

🔗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

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

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

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.

  • In your favorite search engine (we recommend DuckDuckGo), search for an image and then click "Images".

  • Filter for images that have a transparent background, appearing as a light white/grey checkerboard pattern behind the character.

    • If you’re using DuckDuckGo: Click "All Types" and select "Transparent".

    • If you’re using Google Image Search: Select "Color -> Transparent".

Finding Images on GIS, Source: Google Image Search, images.google.com

  • 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 "Images" button.

    • This will automatically bring in the image using the image-url function so that you can click "Run" and see the image.

Investigate

  • With your partner, search the Internet for images to use in your game. You will need 4 images, one for each visual element of their game: BACKGROUND, PLAYER, DANGER, TARGET

  • If the image you find needs to be made bigger or smaller, use the scale function to resize it.

  • If the image needs to be rotated, or flipped, you can make use of the following image manipulation functions:

    • rotate

    • flip-horizontal

    • flip-vertical.

    • You’ll find their contracts in the Contracts Page. If you’re working with a printed workbook, the contracts pages are included in the back.

If your class could use some practice with scaling first, turn to Scaling Practice and/or Scaling Practice (2).

Copyright and Fair Use

Fair Use Diagram, Source: www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item6247 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.

When adding an image to their game, have students include a comment which gives attribution to the source of the image.

As you work, be sure to:

  • Save the chosen images to their Drive

  • Bring them into the programming environment

  • Include a comment which gives attribution to the source of the image

  • 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 you’re finished, you should be able to type SCREENSHOT in the Interactions Area (after clicking "Run") and see all four images appropriately sized and oriented.

Synthesize

  • What functions were most useful in helping you customize your images to make your game look and feel how you want it?

  • How did you make use of function composition in customizing your images?

These materials were developed partly through support of the National Science Foundation, (awards 1042210, 1535276, 1648684, 1738598, 2031479, and 1501927). CCbadge Bootstrap 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.

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