Teach coding with the 'Shark Lady Explorer Game' for grades 3-5. Students create a marine game, learning movement, random positioning, and collision detection.
Use milestone checks, organizer responses, and daily test evidence to guide feedback.
Ăvaluation sommative
The title and marine design connect the movement challenge to shark exploration without reinforcing inaccurate monster stereotypes. Up/down controls, looping movement, random placement, collision, and game-over behavior work consistently across repeated plays.
đThe Scientist Who Taught a Shark to Ring a Bell
In the 1950s, at a small marine laboratory in Florida, a lemon shark swam up to a white target, pressed it with its snout, and waited. Food arrived. The shark had learned the trick â press the target, get dinner â and it remembered the tricâŠ
SourcesNOAA â Dr. Eugenie ClarkMote Marine Laboratory â founded by Eugenie Clark in 1955 as the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory
Students learn that Eugenie Clark overturned the "mindless monster" story about sharks by observing and testing instead of assuming â training sharks to press targets and finding sharks resting in caves. The stance transfers to their game design: the diver is a visitor in the sharks' ocean, the sharks move on their own paths, and the challenge is observation and skill, not defeating a monster.
The Down control moves up or the labels do not match the coded direction. âTest each button alone and record the starting and ending y-position.
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Random sharks appear where collision is unavoidable or outside the playable area. âConstrain and test the y-range at its minimum, maximum, and several random values.
Common Core State Standards â English Language Arts
10 norme
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.7
Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related questions when appropriate.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes, categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts, or solving authentic problems.
ISTE 1.4.c
Students develop, test, and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
ISTE 1.6.d
Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.
ISTE 1.5.d
Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.
