Tropical Cyclones in the Pacific
Maria Twidle
Katikati College
Year 13 ICT, full year
Teacher: Steve Graham
Maria was asked to design and build some educational software to fulfil a client need that she found in her school.
Smartboards – large, touch-enabled interactive whiteboards connected to a computer – are being rapidly introduced into her school as a teaching aid. But many teachers do not have adequate resources to use this new technology. Maria's client identified a lack of Smartboard resources for a Year 11 geography class, on tropical cyclones in the Pacific.
Maria set about designing and building an interactive flash program delivered on CD to help students understand how cyclones form and the sequence of events involved and tests their knowledge through an interactive multichoice quiz game. Maria used several advanced programming techniques to create keyboard interactivity and some interesting visual effects with the rain.
Maria worked closely with the teacher, students and other teachers in the department to come up with her final brief and to design, create and test her prototype and implement it within the geography teacher's Smartboard resources. Her solution was visually and aurally appealing, and easy to navigate. It can be used by individual students on a computer and by teachers on a Smartboard. To ensure that students follow the learning process, Maria locked sections of the solution until the prior section is completed.
Teacher comment
The project shows good tech practice and a high quality outcome. Maria used Flash with some advanced Actionscript programming to create an interactive piece of software that first teaches about the formation of tropical cyclones and then goes on to provide a quiz that the students can use to test themselves.
