CSDT:
BeadLoom Game
Acey Boyce
UNC Charlotte
We Love Virtual Bead Loom
 Our most successful CSDT
 Extremely effective at teaching
Cartesian Coordinates and Geometry
 Free play results in very creative
products
Free Play Results
Free Play Results
Free Play Results
Problem
 Students tend to use “easiest” tools
available in a free play environment
 Very rarely utilize advanced tools to
create patterns
 Avoids learning iteration
Example Goal
Ideally…
Ideally…
Ideally…
Ideally…
Ideally…
Ideally…
Total Creates Used: 6
Really…
Really…
Total Creates Used: 117
Questions
 How can we “force” students to use
advanced tools and think in terms of
optimization?
 How can we do that AND still allow
the kids to have fun?
Solution
 Convert the VBL into a puzzle game!
The Game
 Given a goal image try to create that
image in the fewest moves possible
 Each time a draw button is clicked the
move count goes up by 1
The Game
 Ideal solutions require advanced
usage of iterative tools and painters
algorithm (Layering)
 Players are awarded medals based on
performance and high scores are
maintained
What I Have Done
 Created over 30 puzzles and found ideal
solution to each
What I Have Done
 Puzzles range from traditional to modern
What I Have Done
 Created a system to display puzzles
and check student work against goal
 Implemented the system for local
score keeping, puzzle unlocking, and
medal earning
 Developed tutorial puzzles to
introduce players to each tool
Trial By Fire
 Used game at 2 Summer Camps
 Camp 1: 20 Middle Schoolers
 Camp 2: 18 High Schoolers
 Each group played game for about 30
minutes a day for 4 days in a
competitive setting
Results
 Kids had fun!
 Fought Tooth and Nail to win each
contest
 Three High Schoolers even asked for
a copy of the game to play with at
home
Results
 Middle Schoolers (Aided in finding
many bugs):
 Average Rating: 3.74 out of 5
 High Schoolers (90% of bugs
removed):
 Average Fun Rating: 4.27 out of 5
 Average Educational Rating: 4.27
 Average Overall Rating: 4.33
What they learned
 Sadly the Pre/Post Test for middle
school camp did not focus on game
 Students did however seem to have a
deeper understanding of painters
algorithm and iteration
What they learned
 Had to tell students not to use
iteration for some puzzles
 Complexity of Free Play designs went
up as puzzle difficulty increased
 According to game logs students
made fewer errors as week
progressed
What they learned
 High School Pre/Post Test divided into
3 sections:
 Cartesian Coordinates
 Iteration
 Painter’s Algorithm
What they learned
 Iteration Pre Test Average:
 75.3%
 Iteration Post Test Average:
 84.0%
(8.7% Increase)
 Painters Pre Test Average:
 33.3%
 Painters Post Test Average:
 52.8%
(18.5% Increase)
Painters Note*
 I believe in future
testing this will be
even higher
increase
 The Pre Test
question did not
print correctly
Future Work
 Addition of a Timer
 Addition of a multiplayer high score
table
 Creation and implementations of
more puzzles
Future Research
 What makes a game?
 What makes a game fun?
 Use three versions of game
 Bare Bones: Just Scoring
 Competitive: High Score Table
 Advanced: Customizable User
Interactions
In Closing
 Thank you for creating CSDTs and
providing me the inspiration for this
game
 It has lead to me accomplishing a
major goal in life:
Kids enjoying and asking to play a
game I created