Beaten to the punch by MIT on this one: Scratch. It does most of what I had in my first Design and Education project, which itself was a proposal to extend MIT's Logo Blocks into a more general-purpose multimedia programming application. Admittedly, mine was more of a game than a toolbox, and had a specific narrative structure in mind, but as far as using graphical means for exploring programming goals, Scratch does a really amazing job.

I'd like to spend a few days with this and try to work past the visual bling to get into it as a teaching tool. But I'm encouraged by it and I'd like to see how well it could be used for intro programming classes like CDT Bootcamp.

Challenge

Design a lecture or instructional piece for something missing from the MFADT curriculum.

Problem

Topic

Teaching graduate design students the kinds of math they need to do interesting graphics, games, and other computational designs.

Audience

Parsons MFADT students.

Setting

In class or in lab project work.

Problem

What is the best and most useful way to provide Parsons MFADT students with the kinds of math that they need with out getting bogged down in details that do not relate to their needs or work?

I don't know how I missed this:

Processing for mobile devices

Holy crap! This could change everything, especially for us. We're neck deep in processing coders, and this opens up huge avenues for development.

See the files below for significant builds.

phevo-0.0.6

First interaction test

phevo-0.0.12

Second interaction test

phevo-0.0.13

First prototype

phevo-0.0.22

Pre-Second prototype

phevo-0.0.27

Second prototype, with Windows executable in the "dist" directory

phevo-0.0.31

Third prototype

phevo-0.0.33

Alpha release

So, we have working game code for the trauma bear. See the attachments for that.

The first file the processing code and the second is the arduino code.

Photos and videos to come.

Just a bit of pseudo-code that shows the state transitions in our trauma bear project.

start
	*random
		-> convulse_cardio
		-> convulse_flatline
		-> convulse_gi
convulse_cardio
	*time < 20 && comp >= 6 && accel. == BACK
		-> stable
	*else
		-> death
convulse_flatline
	*time > 10
		-> any_touch
convulse_gi
	*time > 5
		-> shallow_vital
stable
	*time > 10 && accel. < error_movement
		-> well
	*else
		-> need_more_comps
dead
	*reset_button == HIGH
		-> start
well
	*reset_button == HIGH
		-> start
shallow_vitals
	*accel. == SIDE && time < 15
		-> ready_to_intubate
	*intubated == HIGH && time < 15
		-> tube_convulse 
	*else
		-> death
need_more_comps
	*time < 20 && comp >= 6 && accel. == BACK
		-> stable
	*time < 20
		-> need_air
	*else
		-> death
need_air
	*intubated == HIGH && pumps >= 6 && time < 20
		-> stable
	*else
		-> death
flatline
	*flatline_total < 3 && paddles_applied && time < 20
		-> paddled
	*else
		-> death
tube_convulse
	*intubated == LOW && time < 15
		-> shallow_vitals
	*else
		-> death
ready_to_intubate
	*intubated == HIGH && time < 15
		-> intubated
	*else
		-> death
intubated
	*accel. < error_movement && time > 10
		-> well
paddled
	*random
		-> needs_air
		-> flatline
		-> well
any_touch
	*time < 20 && accel. > error_movement
		-> flatline
	*time >= 20
		-> death