Story Mode for Teaching Cross-Curricular Coding Projects

In previous R&D, the developers created codeSpark Academy, a game that employs a visual and block-based approach with puzzles to teach coding skills to students ages 5 to 9 years old. codeSpark Academy is in widespread use in and out of schools around the world. In this project, the developers will expand storytelling creative tools within the existing game. The pretend-play scenarios will include characters, storylines, and incentives to further engage students, and to make connections to learning goals more explicit. The final game will include user-created and uploaded photographic backgrounds, for students to customize gameplay by representing people, locations, and events at their own school or throughout history. Students can then code "what-if" histories using a conditional based choose-your-own outcome feature, as well as different storylines using the figures they create. A website will be developed with resources to support teacher implementation.