Dear All,
many of you are interested in the idea of making Lisp more relevant.
Perhaps the real question is how to make computer science more
relevant to the masses in general. Various ideas have been explored
over the years. Our NSF supported project called Scalable Game Design
explores how to bring game design into public schools. We have now
entire school districts using game design as their computer education
approach. Middle school kids learn how to make a variety of games
ranging from simple Frogger-like games all the way up to making Sim-
like games.
Why would I want to mention this in comp.lang.lisp you may ask? The
software shown in the movie below IS a Lisp application called
AgentSheets. The programs created by the kids are turned into Lisp
(and Java). Btw, in many of the schools this is a REQUIRED course.
Imagine, every kid in the school is using it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcS2CPrYUdY (available in HD ;-)
more about the project http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu
If you are interested in working with your local school district to
explore similar ideas please let me know.
all the best, Alex
Prof. Alexander Repenning
University of Colorado
Computer Science Department
Boulder, CO 80309-430
From: Dimiter "malkia" Stanev
Subject: Re: Lisp in Public Schools: Scalable Game Design with AgentSheets
Date:
Message-ID: <gmta61$b0h$1@malkia.motzarella.org>
What exactly do SCALABLE GAME DESIGN means?
I would understand SCALABLE GAME TECHNOLOGY - e.g. add more CPU's, more
GPU's - your game runs in better fps, or with better quality, or at
least it does not decrease it's fps when more cpu's are put (yes, there
were couple of games for which that was the case).
But when comes to DESIGN - what exactly this entails?
game_designer wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> many of you are interested in the idea of making Lisp more relevant.
> Perhaps the real question is how to make computer science more
> relevant to the masses in general. Various ideas have been explored
> over the years. Our NSF supported project called Scalable Game Design
> explores how to bring game design into public schools. We have now
> entire school districts using game design as their computer education
> approach. Middle school kids learn how to make a variety of games
> ranging from simple Frogger-like games all the way up to making Sim-
> like games.
>
> Why would I want to mention this in comp.lang.lisp you may ask? The
> software shown in the movie below IS a Lisp application called
> AgentSheets. The programs created by the kids are turned into Lisp
> (and Java). Btw, in many of the schools this is a REQUIRED course.
> Imagine, every kid in the school is using it.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcS2CPrYUdY (available in HD ;-)
>
> more about the project http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu
>
> If you are interested in working with your local school district to
> explore similar ideas please let me know.
>
> all the best, Alex
>
> Prof. Alexander Repenning
>
> University of Colorado
> Computer Science Department
> Boulder, CO 80309-430
>
From: Kenneth Tilton
Subject: Re: Lisp in Public Schools: Scalable Game Design with AgentSheets
Date:
Message-ID: <4992fa04$0$10202$607ed4bc@cv.net>
game_designer wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> many of you are interested in the idea of making Lisp more relevant.
> Perhaps the real question is how to make computer science more
> relevant to the masses in general. Various ideas have been explored
> over the years. Our NSF supported project called Scalable Game Design
> explores how to bring game design into public schools. We have now
> entire school districts using game design as their computer education
> approach. Middle school kids learn how to make a variety of games
> ranging from simple Frogger-like games all the way up to making Sim-
> like games.
>
> Why would I want to mention this in comp.lang.lisp you may ask? The
> software shown in the movie below IS a Lisp application called
> AgentSheets. The programs created by the kids are turned into Lisp
> (and Java). Btw, in many of the schools this is a REQUIRED course.
> Imagine, every kid in the school is using it.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcS2CPrYUdY (available in HD ;-)
Way cool. Kids seem pretty into it. Bad news is the confirmation of an
epidemic of child obesity: 3 in 6 need to cut down on the Mickey Ds!
:(
kt
>
> more about the project http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu
>
> If you are interested in working with your local school district to
> explore similar ideas please let me know.
>
> all the best, Alex
>
> Prof. Alexander Repenning
>
> University of Colorado
> Computer Science Department
> Boulder, CO 80309-430
>