MSTU 6000 Final Portal Parabolas Tang

THINKING WITH PORTAL PARABOLAS 

Needs

Mathematics is the most difficult and dry subject to teach and to learn at high school level. The needs of finding a more engaging way to teach/learn mathematics are much greater than ever. Teaching/learning mathematics through educational game playing is the hope of true mathematical teaching/learning. “Numerous studies examining student boredom within the classroom have considered the association between boredom and the subject matter being taught. Data collected by Farrell et al. (1988) suggests that students identified by school officials as at risk of dropping out of school differentiated between ‘boring’ and ‘interesting’ classes based not on the subject matter of each class but based on practices within the classroom.” (Richard Mora, Occidental College 2011). There needs to be a better way to help hook and get the students interested in the topic. The common core / engage ny suggested such a mediocre and nisired way of introducing students to complex mathematical concepts which will immediately push the students away.

Design Description

The game design is based around a level creator in portal 2. Students and teachers will be using the tools given to them in the level editor. Students and teachers will need to try to create a parabola with the given tools. Once able to figure out which tool in the level editor that represents the parabola the best students would then experiment even further by adjusting the vertex, while also trying to create a parabola that represents a minimum and maximum. Each tool has a unique property so students will be able to share what tools they found most useful in creating these mathematical terms. Students would then be given a task in which they would need to work in groups in designing their own levels based on the questions given to them, upload their level designs online, and have other classmates play and solve questions that follow along with the level. Below are images of what the teacher and students should see in the game.

Mechanics

The mechanics of the game would involve using your mouse to click to choose the tools in your level editor in addition to where you would place them. The mouse would also allow you to click and drag adjusting the level making the room bigger or smaller adding more rooms as well. Other mechanics involving the mouse would be the actual gameplay in which you would need to use the mouse to look around in first person. Left click to shoot the first portal and right click to shoot the second portal. The keyboard would include WASD and the E key. WASD to move around freely in your environment while you press E to interact / pickup objects. 

How game play will support learning

The game play will support learning because students will be able to adjust and see the vertex when the parabola is being created and see the relation of how the “a” value will be affected in y=ax^2. Portal 2’s map maker system is on a grid system so students will be able to also calculate the “a” value as well.

Dynamics

The dynamics of the game is to see what you can create with the limited tools that you have in the level editor. Also trying to figure out how to solve the problem given to you from the levels that are created by others. 

Aesthetics

The minimalist and simple design of the tools given to you in the level designer How simple it is to implement the tools and edit your level. The clear visual indicators of what each tool does in the level editor and how easy it is to use them as well.

Success

One successful implementation of the design process was to have students figuring out how to represent a minimum parabola in the Portal 2 level editor. Since you have very limited tools it makes students think outside the box and the use of portals in order to represent a min parabola. Portal is one of the few software that can represent a min through its physics engine. 

Challenges

One challenge that  came across was for implementing another big part of what portal 2 is. Portal is supposed to be a puzzle game in which you escape the room by solving the puzzle using your portals. However, creating an escape room out of the sole topic of parabola was difficult for me and had no relation with the learning target and goals and would be another extra step for both teachers and students to implement. This potentially could lead students to confusion or being off task with this extra step. 

Steam workshop access to student works. Questions are provided in the description of the download page.

Instructions:

1. Make sure Portal 2 is downloaded
2. Click on the group link that you are in and click the subscribe button
3. Open Portal 2
4. Click community test chambers 
5. Click single player test chambers 
6. Click on the group test chamber you just downloaded.

Student group A: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2461584815 

  Student group B: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2461589692