A New Project - typing game

I had an extra week of time for my AP CSP students this year.  I wanted them to explore the Post-AP database unit, but I knew doing more "stages" wasn't the right approach.  The stages are a little too quiet, not enough collaboration, and students aren't always super motivated to get it right.  They are good, but I didn't want to come back from spring break and put them on that.  

Instead, I decided to have students make a game that would have a high scoring screen which would force them to get used to creating and reading a database.   This would get at the database content without forcing all students to do all stages of the database unit.  Realistically, I think most students would need to do the stages to be successful in the task, but by giving them the task first, they had a motivation for wanting to learn how databases work.  Additionally, students LOVE making games.  Games usually have winners or losers, so a winner board screen is a not a "forced" concept.

The difficult piece is that students just finished an independent open-ended project. SO there were TONS of games that students had already made so I needed to find a new type of game that the project revolved around.

After brainstorming with KSTF's POET (Principal Officer of Educational Technology), I decided that a "typing game" would be a good vehicle for students.  Thinking of the "learn to type" games out there, students could design a game that tested how well someone could type and then score that person's abilities. 

I started looking into creating the database, I felt a little unprepared myself and a little concerned that one week wouldn't be enough time for students... SO... this was the prompt I gave students:

To get a C it MUST:
- Be play-able
- Have scoring mechanism
- Have a way to "end" the game (you shouldn't be able to play forever)
- Use two functions that are used to create a third algorithm*

Anything else - is the Razzle Dazzle Factor.  Consider:
- Top scorers screen
- Different ways to check if the input is correct
- Animation of the words
- Using colors to describe if a person got something right or wrong
- Timers
- Different levels

The starred requirement was just so students get a feel for how they need to write up their "Create" task and to force them into using functions a bit more.  

This "rubric" was intentionally designed to give students freedom and encourage divergent thinking between groups.  The "rubric for a C" idea was something I learned from  Rebecca at a code.org conference.  I actually really like it, especially for this class there is no "cap" to student creativity AND it keeps my trolls going.  It ensures that students are constantly working in class and pushing themselves. 

Students needed to work with at least three other people for this project.  I am excited to see how all of their projects will be "the same but different" when we are all done and I think students themselves might be surprised to see how other teams solved the same problem as themselves.