Ruler mechanics for smaller hands
An easy-to-use ruler that still requires you to use your measuring skills.
Background
Age group: Grades K-1
Pedagogical purpose: Measure, order, and compare objects using familiar metric units of length. Plant a seed for understanding the triangle inequality principle—one of the defining factors of a metric.
Pedagogical challenge: We had to strategically place routes so that they would require manual ruler measurements.
Story: The monster is going to his friend’s birthday and he’s really anxious about being the first one to arrive.
Game task: Help him measure the shortest route possible to ensure he will arrive on time.
Game challenge: It was challenging to define the ruler behavior to ensure it could be comfortably used by small hands. The ruler widget will be reused in all future games that require measurement.