[Sugar-devel] Activities for Sugar and GCI 16

[Vishal Batchu]

Hi everyone,

I had a few ideas for Sugar activities in mind that I wanted to share.
These activities could be split into tasks that could be used for GCI that
is coming up. I wanted to share these ideas and get some insights,
suggestions (maybe certain flaws) etc.

Activity 1 - Teach Me How To Draw (Similar Activities: GCompris Redraw 13)

   -

   The idea I had in mind for this was that a user gives an image of a
   doodle as the input (Or we can store a bunch of these doodles which could
   be used). A doodle is essentially a pencil outline drawing. I have attached
   an example (82.svg). The only constraint is that these should be svg images
   so we can access the curves. (If this can be extended to any image format
   in general that would also be great). We then ask them to draw a replica of
   the image.
   -

   The screen would be split into 2 halves. The left half is where the user
   draws and the right half is where we show the drawing in a stepwise manner.
   -

   We parse the svg image and draw each curve one after another on the
   right half of the screen. (Generally, we would want to draw curves that are
   touching each other first and then move on to other distant curves,
   starting from any one of the available curves).
   -

   This would enable us to draw curves based on the time. We would
   essentially get a list of (x,y,t,s) points which is what we use to draw the
   sketch starting from t=0 till t=T. At different intervals, we stop and ask
   the user to copy this drawing to their half of the screen. Based on that
   once we feel that they have drawn a decent amount then we proceed further
   and draw the next curve on the guide part (right half) of the screen.
   -

   We then compute the errors based on the original image and the one that
   the user is drawing and guide them as needed. (Basic chamfer matching could
   be used to get the error between these two images)


This activity would encourage and help people learn to draw better. We
could also then point out what each of those objects are so kids who use
Sugar can also learn about associations between object names and their
shapes via drawing. This could also then be extended to coloring these
doodles and so on.


Activity 2 - Create a zoo activity (Similar Activities: BioDiv 6, Safari
Activity, Food Chain)

   -

   Initially, there would be small pictures of animals, reptiles etc placed
   all around the screen.
   -

   There would be an image of the entire zoo (or multiple images for the
   different classes) as the background. The user would be able to scroll
   horizontally across the entire zoo by using their mouse. We will define
   sections of the zoo as a place for let's say Birds, Water animals,
   Reptiles, Mammals etc. Based on this the user has to classify these
   different pictures into their corresponding places.
   -

   We can also let the user know what the name of the certain
   animal/bird/reptile etc is so they get to learn about this as well.



Activity 3 - Synonym Antonym activity

   -

   There will be 2 locations on the left and right of the screen where we
   need to drop words. The left one is for synonyms and the right one is for
   antonyms.
   -

   Every 60 seconds or so the main word will change and the player would be
   given multiple synonyms and antonyms of the main word which keep dropping
   down at the center of the screen. The player would then be required to pick
   these words up and drop them in the correct bins (left or right).
   -

   As the user gives correct answers the speed of words dropping increases
   and vice versa. After the time is up the main word changes and the process
   repeats.


Generally, kids are always taught about synonyms and antonyms when they
learn. It's a great way to let people know what words mean through words
that they already know or the opposites that they know. Having an activity
specifically for this would be of great use.

I did take a look at the existing Sugar activities to check if anything
similar to these already exist, but didn’t find any. In case there exists
Sugar activities that are similar/same as any of the ones I am proposing
above, please do let me know and drop a link to the activity.

Thanks,

Vishal
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