What I accomplished 5/31/16

   Well it's be a long year, but it has been amazing. I was able to get a shadowing experience at 1st Playable, I was able to learn 2 codes, and I was able to work with a famous computer scientist! These valuable experiences gave me the knowledge that I wanted in order to know what the life of a computer scientist. This will give me a head start next year in college when I go into the field of Computer Science and Innovation. Also these experiences helped understand better that this is the field I definitely want to go into. I feel as if I am always up for the challenge and nothing is ever the same. Something different needs to be done everyday, which makes this exciting and eventful. I hope that this experience will further help my skills for computer science. I also was able to be part of the coding club's first year at Emma. It was a great brush up on what I needed to know for JavaScript and python, and it also helped me learn part of another code I haven't learned yet, Python. It was a great way for me to also get a deeper understanding of how coding is applied into everyday life. Everything I did this year were invaluable experiences and I greatly appreciate everyone did in order to help enlighten me as a computer scientist.

Bugs 4/13/16

   When making a game or simulation, there are bound to be bugs. Right now one of the bugs is that sometimes the timer won't work properly, and it will keep on going past 20 seconds when I specifically told it to reset at 20 seconds. Also the Total Farm Wealth variable sometimes doesn't properly add all the pigs value (the pigs value is determined by their weight, 5 dollars  per pound). It sometimes only takes pigs 2 and 3 and adds their value to the Total Farm Wealth, and completely neglects Pigs 1. Also Pig 1 is glitched so sometimes it won't properly grow when clicked (which after 3 clicks makes it become resistant).
    What I have decided to do to try to fix these problems is that I am reviewing the code that I got currently. This is in order to tweak the code so it's more efficient and allows me to try different ways to try to get the same result. Sometimes I just got to figure out if it's the code or the website. That is because sometimes the simulation doesn't work for the first time, but after I refresh the game and start it over, it works perfectly find the next couple of times.
    I love this experience I am having because it gives me insight on how a programmer would think. They are given many different ideas, they have to break down what would work and wouldn't work, and then they got to initiate it and make the simulation. I love the different ideas I have to come up with when I run across a problem so I can fix it. I am currently making level 4 right now. I am thinking about making 20 or so levels which will make it around a 10 minute simulation (30 seconds per level).
 

A change of plans: 4/4/16

     So what I am doing now changed from the human having an illness to making a game with pigs and antibiotics. How does this teach kids about antibiotic resistant bacteria? Well, this game has to do with clicking on pigs in order to make money. These are the instructions for the game: When a pig doesn't have a letter that means they are healthy, you will have the option to click on them to give them antibiotics or leave them as they are
When a pig shows S, that means they are sick. To help cure them, click on them to give them antibiotics to cure them
When a pig shows R, that means they have become resistant to the antibiotics you have given it
When a pig shows S and R, that means they have become sick AND resistant. The antibiotics you give it will no longer have an effect and the pig will die.
You get 20 seconds to complete each level, by then you either clicked on the pigs or you leave them be.
The normal temperature of a pig is 102.2 degrees, anything higher is considered a fever

I had it so that when they click on a healthy pig and give them an antibiotic, the pig will become fatter, which makes the player richer more quickly, but if they feed the pig too many antibiotics when it's not needed, the pig will become resistant. Once the resistant pig sick, it will be impossible for the player to cure the pig leading into it's death. I already made level one, working on level 2, going to make 10 levels in total.

More addons! (with struggles) 3/6/16

      As you know so far, I am currently making a simulation/game in order for high school students to learn about antibiotic resist bacteria and the consequences of not taking an entire prescription. We are now trying to now get most of the players press the yes button to stop taking a prescription. The reason for that is because then they can learn from their mistakes. So as a result, if they press no the game will end with you win, BUT if they press the yes button, they continue on with the simulation. In order to ensure that most of the students press yes, so far we added a temperature gauge so it shows a normal temperature. I also changed the yes button to a fun picture of a bacteria while the no button is just boring words.
      When they press the bacteria, they end up going into a mini game for about two minutes. They will have to click the multiplying bacteria in order to "destroy" the invasion. I programmed it to be impossible for them to win, the bacteria will continue to multiple until a certain limit (I don't certainly want the game to crash) once it goes lower than a certain number, the bacteria will multiply again. The problem I am experiencing is that the bacteria multiply correctly until the last number I want it to. I want the bacteria to multiple until there are 64 of them and then stop. Once the number goes below 33, they will multiply again. The problem is, the program says there are 64 bacteria, but when I counted, there were only 33, this is a weird problem that I am trying to work further into. 

Future Ideas for the next simulation 2/29/16

    For the next simulation, we are thinking of having it explain more in depth about the reason for winning and losing. It possibly will be in a microscopic view point. I believe I might do it with bacteria cells multiplying and how the player needs to experience for themselves what it's like when at first they are taking the prescription of the medication and then they stop before a couple of days. They will do a useless fight against the bacteria while they continue to the multiple. They will be eventually over taken and lose. Then an explanation will pop up telling them what happened and what the inevitable result was. Then they will press a continue with taking the full prescription of the antibiotics in order for them to see what happens when they do a battle against the bacteria that is easier. There will be an explanation short after saying how the prescription helped them fight off all the remaining bacteria. This explanation has to be short but informative. The idea of the simulation itself is in order for high school students to learn what is needed in biology, but in a fun way that will
keep the students engaged.
 . 

Progress 2/28/16

     So far now I been working on a simulation that has to do with slowly getting rid of the bacteria using the antibiotics. Halfway through the simulation, it will ask if the player wants to stop taking the pills since they are mostly feeling better or continue the prescription. If they decide to take continue they win, but if they don't they lose. I am currently almost done and just need to make the finishing touches to it, adding the win or lose picture that pops up when they chose yes or no.

Figure 1: This shows what happens after the player has chosen to consume 5 out of the 7 pills. The pink squares represent the bacteria and how many are left. And the blister pack has the pills inside of it.

   If it's possible, I am going to work on trying to put up a temperature gauge for the patient. This will also convince the player not to continue taking the pills and give in to temptation. What will happen is the temperature of the patient will slowly go back to normal so when the prescription is almost done and it asks this question, it will seem as if the patient is alright. The amount of coding, creativity and graphic design takes more time than I thought it would. The accomplishment I feel when completing it makes me feel wonderful.

Backgrounds 2/11/16

    As I wrote about earlier, Ron is a computer scientist that is known for making games for kids that are in less privileged cultures than we are. For example, Indians, African Americans, Hispanics, etc. He makes games that educate them about their culture and also puts in some coding into the game, making the kids learn how to code at a young age. This allows them to become interested in the math and science field so there are more computer scientists. I talked to Audrey, and she is a professor at RPI. She is going to help me learn computer design in order for me to make an even better game than I would've ever thought of. Then lastly there is Danielle, she is a biologist who wants the simulation made in order to help educate people about bacteria and antibiotics. The thing is when people take too many antibiotics, the bacteria mutate in order to resist the bacteria, The bacteria are pressured into surviving the antibiotics that are trying to kill them, so they keep that gene that keeps them alive, it takes a giant toll of the bacteria because of how much it costs for them to maintain that gene. If people only went off the antibiotics for a couple months then go back to it, the bacteria wouldn't feel pressured to maintain that gene, so they would go die off again. She is trying to get that message across to the students that will play that simulation/game. In order to make it entertaining, we have to make it into an interactive game for them.