Prezi Presentation

Here is the Prezi presentation of our project:
http://prezi.com/7bipdqypqocj/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-7bipdqypqocj&rc=ref-41261239

Thursday, May 16th

Today, fortunately, the rain stopped just before PE class. Ms.Piercy let us to lead the class for today. We set up the camera and recorded the whole process of setting up, explaining the rules, and the actual game play. We are going edit the recording as part of our Prezi presentation.

Wednesday, May 15th

Today, I revised the rules of the Whack-a-ball based on the peer review results. Please see rules section for changes. Also, If it doesn't rain tomorrow, we are going to test our game during PE class. Here is a loose schedule of tomorrow's class:

9:40               CLASS STARTS
9:40-9:50       Changing/Attendence
9:50-10:00     Warm-up/ Set Up
10:00-10:10   Explaining rules/Demonstration
10:10-10:50   Playing the game!
10:55             CLASS ENDS

Saturday, May 11th and Tuesday, May14th

On these days, we started to plan out our presentation. We decided to use a Prezi because neither of us had ever used one before. In the beginning of the project, Ms. Lees suggested that we should let the whole class to try our game out as our presentation, but later we found that difficult to do. We would need to get a field during English class and borrow some equipment from the PE department. However, there would be other PE classes in session at that time.

In our Prezi presentation, we are going to include the whole process of the game making, including the research, creation, troubleshooting, revising, and actually testing out the game. For the game testing part, we are going to film/edit our PE class and make a short video.

Friday, May 10th

Today, we made our rubric for our project:

We also prepared the questions for the peer reviewing:

(This was done on survey monkey)

*

1. What is your name?

What is your name?

*

2. Are you interested in this game? Give some reasons, why or why not.

Are you interested in this game? Give some reasons, why or why not.

*

3. Do you think that the rules are too complicated to understand? Why or why not?

Do you think that the rules are too complicated to understand? Why or why not?

*

4. Do you think that this game is too competitive for PE students?

Do you think that this game is too competitive for PE students?

*

5. Do you think this game is safe?

Do you think this game is safe?

*

6. What is the best aspect of this game? What is the worst part of the game?

What is the best aspect of this game? What is the worst part of the game?

*

7. What can we do to improve our game?

What can we do to improve our game?

*

8. Do you think that this game will motivate students that don’t usually participate in PE class?

Do you think that this game will motivate students that don’t usually participate in PE class?

*

9. Any other comments/ suggestions?

Tuesday, May 7th and Thursday, May 9th

On these two days, we constructed all the balls. It took around eight hours in total. Here are the steps we took to make the balls:
1) cut the sock in half (we only use the bottom half)
2) put the ball in the sock and fold it in a specific manner
3) cut the extra edges of the sock, so it won't protrude
4) sew the openings to seal the ball in the sock

Monday, May 6th

Today,  our prototype was FINALLY accepted by Ms.Piercy!!!
That's all that happened today. We plan to mass produce the prototype this week. It takes 20 minutes to make one and we need at least 20 balls AND Willam cannot sew...

Sunday, May 4th

Today, I decided to use the remaining socks from our last revisions to try one last time to make a proper ball that was soft and durable. I ripped the duct tape off and put the ball into the sock in a certain manner. Then I sewed it together carefully. Although the ball would be water resistant, I think that is certainly safe and soft enough to meet Ms. Piercy's high standards. Here is a picture of the last chance:

Thursday, May 1st

Today, our revised ball was ONCE AGAIN REJECTED by Ms. Piercy. This time, it was because the ball was still too hard. Also, she said that the two edges of the plastic bag was sharp and may somehow stab someone in the eye. Ms. Piercy showed us a foam ball like this one:

She said that if we still couldn't produce a viable ball, then we could use these.

Sunday, April 28th

Today, I discovered that lots of the tape used to seal the plastic bags did not hold. William suggested that we should use a tiny piece of duct tape, although the edges may be sharp. Here is the ball, revised again:

Saturday, April 27th

Today, William and I got together to revise the ball AGAIN... After trying various method in an attempt to glue plastic wrap onto the ball, we failed miserably. Then, we turned to putting the balls into small PVC(plastic) bags. We then sealed the bag with clear tape. Here is a picture of the prototype:

Tuesday, April 23rd

Today, we continued to discuss our problem. I suggested that we should use a plastic binding agent to bind plastic wrap onto the ball. This would make the ball smooth, durable, but also soft. However, after doing more research, we found out that the process of bind the platic is costy and dangerous. For this reason, we decided to think of another solution...

Monday, April 22nd

Very unfortunately, our revised whack-a-ball was rejected by our PE teacher again. Ms. Piercy said that the ball was the right size, but the folds of the duct tape are protruding and may scratch someone. As a result, we need to troubleshoot again. Maybe we should consider peer reviewing at this point. We definitely need some help...

Saturday, April 20th

Today, William and I went to buy the socks and tape. Later, we started assembling the balls... AGAIN..
Here are the additional steps of making the whack-a-ball:

We are planing to cover the ball with half a sock, then sewing it together, and finally, we will use duct tape to cover the whole thing.

The sock is over the ball.

We sewed up the top opening of the sock to stabilize the ball.

Completed!

Friday, April 19th

Today, I did some research on the type of tape we should use. The tape should be durable, waterproof, and somewhat smooth. Here is a website on various types of tapes. Three types of tapes that stood out the most was duct tape, electrical tape, and silicone tape. Later, I eliminated the electrical tape because sometimes the tape releases toxins when put in contact with certain substances. I was very impressed by the functions of the silicone tape. It could stick and bind to itself, it is durable and very soft. However, after checking online, I found out that it is extremely expensive, so in the end, I decided that we would have to go with the duct tape. 

Thursday, April 18th

Today in class, we are still deciding on how we can give an alternative outer layer to our whack-a-ball. We came up with a few ideas:
Plastic bags tied up with rope
Saran Wrap
Tape

We came to an agreement later on to use tape because plastic bags are un-shapable and other people might peel off the saran wrap.

Another thing that we did is to prepare the mini-survey that we are going to give to our PE class after they have tested out our game. Here are the few main questions:

• Gender
• simplicity of the rules
• competitiveness
• movement
• skill 
• motivation (are you motivated to move around?)
• Willingness to play the game again in the future

Tuesday, April 16th

Today, I went to Ms. Piercy and unfortunately, she said that there was a safety concern with the whack-a-ball. The problem was that the ball was small enough to hit someone right in the eye. Also, the outer layer of the whack-a-ball was made of rubber. Ms. Piercy was worried that it might snap and hurt someone.  To eliminate the safety concern, Ms. Piercy suggested that we make the whack-a-ball larger and use a different type of an outer coating, Later, I mentioned this to William and we discussed about what to do, We need something soft and easy to work with for the extra filling. At first we decided to just add more newspaper, but it seems too rough, and it doesn't look too good. Then, I got the idea of using socks: soft and flexible. We could just stretch it over the current whack-a-ball. Now, we still need to decide on the outer coating.
To cope with these technical difficulties, we decided to extend our deadline by a week.

Monday, April 15th

Today, we went to our PE teacher, Ms. pierce , to tell her that we are ready to test out our game. We planned to test it out during PE class on Thursday. She agreed and we handed our a sample of our equipment and our rules for her to check over. 

Friday, April 12th

Today, we wrote out the specific rules for our game and named it "Whack-a-ball". You can find the rules at the Rules section. Also, we reviewed our criteria to see if our game matches the criteria:

Blue = Match          Red = Doesn't match     Orange = To be determined
- innovative (new type)  
- competitive *need to wait until we test out the game
- constant moving for everyone *need to wait until we test out the game
- chance to show off *The captain system
- includes characteristics of handball, capture the flag, and ultimate. *We added some elements of dodgeball
- simple rules *need to wait until we test out the game
- strategy needed
- medium skill-leveled game
- team based but depends on individual performance
- fast paced
- play with a ball
- game type
- keeps score
- no time limit

Saturday, April 6th

Today, we mass produced the balls that were needed for our game. In total, we created 30 balls and it took us about 3 hours.

Wednesday, March 27th

Today, we decided on the equipment that we are going to use for the sport. As we said before, we want to use ball type equipment. We need the sport to be safe, so these balls have to be light and soft, but able to fly a long distance. We thought about using ball pit balls, but they were too light and don't fly very far. We went to find supplies to make these balls, and in the end, we settled upon tennis ball covered by balloons. However, when we actually tested them out, they hurt a lot when you get hit. Finally, we settled upon ball pit balls covered by newspaper and covered by two balloons. This made the ball heavier, but still soft and safe. Here are the steps to make the ball:

Step 1: Prepare the necessary items: one ball pit ball, one piece of flyer paper, 2 balloons(one with end cut off), and tape.

Step 2: Cover the ball pit ball with the flyer paper and use tape to hold the ball in place.

Step 3: Stretch the balloon with the cut off end over the ball.

Step 4: Stretch the first balloon completely over the ball and apply force to make it round.

Step 5: Stretch the balloon with the end over the ball.

Step 6: Knot the balloon and apply pressure again to make it round.

FINISHED!

Tuesday, March 26th

Today, we looked at the data that we organized and came up with the basic criteria for our sport/game. (It's going to be a game.)

What we want in our game:
- innovative (new type)
- competitive
- constant moving for everyone
- chance to show off
- includes characteristics of handball, capture the flag, and ultimate.
- simple rules
- strategy needed
- medium skill-leveled game
- team based but depends on individual performance
- fast paced
- play with a ball
- game type
- keeps score
- no time limit

We also brainstormed for ideas for our game. In the end, we came up with a basic template for a war type game, a combination of capture the flag, ultimate, and dodge ball. Specific rules and description will be posted on the RULE section.

Monday, March 25th

Today,we analysed the information from the survey. Unfortunately, there were only 31 people.
Here are the results to the survey:

  

Tuesday, March 19th

Today, we were planning to analyze the result for our survey, but unfortunately, only 20 people responded. Instead, we decided to catch upon the progress log. Also, we sent Mr. Slade the interview questions through Email because William suggested that we should get more opinions from physical education experts. 

Monday, March 18th

Today, we used Survey Monkey to create our survey. Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJPYMHD

We also made an event on Facebook to get people to complete the survey. In total, we invited around 130 people. Hopefully, 50 people will respond. Also Ms. Piercy had answered the question we sent her. Finally we created and decorated the progress log blog for our genius hour project.  

Saturday March 16th

Today, we began to plan out what we are putting in the survey that we are going to send to people in our school. We want to know the main reason that makes students demotivated in PE class. Then we went to look for the general preferences of a new motivational sport/game. We came up with these basic ideas for the survey:

Friday, March 15th

Today, we asked Ms. Piercy if we could interview her through Email over spring break. However, she will be going on vacation, so we sent the questions over to her during lunch.  We also asked her if we could "borrow" a block of PE class to test out our new sport/game. She agreed and told us to tell her ahead of time when we are ready to test.

Wednesday, March 13th

Today, we decided to interview our PE teacher, Ms. Piercy. We wanted her opinions of PE education and her advice on creating a new sport/game. William did some brainstorming and came up with this: 

1. What are some elements that can motivate a student in PE class? 

2. What type of game can make the students think that it is interesting?
3. What are some basic rules of a sport or game?
4. What elements should be included for showing the physical ability of a student?
5. What kind of equipment can make the game/sport interesting?
6. Which type of sport/game can motivate the students: indoors or outdoors?

Later we made some changes and added a few more questions. We ended up with these questions:

1. What do you think is the main reason that some students do not participate in class?

2. What is your strategy of motivating your students to participate?
3. In your opinion, what are elements in a sport/game or type of sport/game that are most enjoyed by students? (Eg. racket sports, ball sports, running)
4. Do you think that lots of equipment is necessary to make a sport interesting?
5. What are some basic elements that make a good sport/game?
6. In PE class, what do you do to accommodate all the students with different physical skill levels?
7. Are you satisfied with the current PE education system? What are some improvements that can be made?

Friday, March 8th

Today, we did our conference with Ms.lees. She suggested that we should present our "sport/game" by leading our English class for a whole block and actually let them try it out. Here is the link to our pre-planning /proposal: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18We06b5tRPCPr0U6pLYf0dPzOC2yznEVtUflQZZ1KJY/edit

Revised version after conference:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MlfepCynWXKajAOCACb2d7UZ68KPndCTQjF3iDKV6VM/edit