Intuitive drawing mechanics
A drawing widget that can be used as a thinking tool. See what’s possible and what’s not!
Background
Age group: Grade 6
Pedagogical purpose: Construct shapes according to given specifications. Understand geometric constraints and get the idea that some things are impossible to construct.
Pedagogical challenge: We needed to map a myriad of different possibilities in order to allow the game to provide meaningful feedback according to each choice taken.
Story: A classic game show set-up in which the user is assigned a random shape and specific properties, along with a challenge: “Can you draw it?”
Game task: Draw a shape with given properties or determine that it’s impossible to construct.
Game challenge: The drawing widget was difficult to define. It was also challenging to incorporate the different elements (technical attributes/robust text/pedagogical aspects/complex terminology/cognitive load) into a single fun game.