Penn Manor High senior creates interactive learning games for first-grade students — who give him high marks for the laptop lessons.
Penn Manor senior Rob Drummond assists Central Manor Elementary School first-grader Chrissy Becker with computer game designed by Drummond.
By Robyn Meadows
Published Nov 01, 2006 14:16
Pick a letter using a computer mouse to complete a word chunk such as “ight” and form “light.”
If you get it right, Cassie gives you a thumbs up sign. If it’s wrong, she closes her eyes and shakes her head no.
The computer game is one of three created by Penn Manor High School senior Rob Drummond.
Drummond demonstrated his games to Bonnie Gambler’s first-grade class at Central Manor Elementary School Monday. Each student played along with a laptop.
Gambler said the games are “fabulous.” And, she said, “Starting tomorrow, I’m telling the other teachers in the district about them.”
She was surprised at how easily her students navigated the games.
“I’m on the seventh level,” shouted one pupil. “I’m on the fourth!” another chimed.
Overall, the young students were eager to share their approval of the games.
“I’m happy they enjoy the characters,” Drummond said.
Drummond had first created a character named French, a green dinosaur, but changed his mind and went with cats named after his pets.
The second game he created is about practicing uppercase and lowercase letters.
“Really good,” was 6-year-old Lauren Elledge’s reply when she was asked how well the game works. “It’s fun.”
The third game involves learning how to count money by spending change in a virtual store.
Among the children’s shopping choices: crayons for 10 cents, a radio for 40 cents, a football for 25 cents, a dinosaur for 30 cents. They have to shop until the bill adds up to $1.
This game was a piece of cake for Thomas Hartenstine, a bright 6-year-old.
“I like games,” he said.
A reporter asked, “Are you learning something new?”
“Not that much because I already know that’s 10 cents,” he said, pointing at the cartoon dime.
But the word-chunk game was harder, he said.
The idea for the fun programs started last school year. Gambler had approached Sherry Fleming, the elementary technology specialist, who created early prototypes. Then Gambler asked Penn Manor High School technology teacher Shawn Canady about creating games for first-grade students.
Canady invited some of his students to participate. Drummond jumped on board.
Two other students helped him with the games initially, but Drummond took the lead and stayed with it, devoting hundreds of hours to the games.
“He’s really focused,” Canady said. “He’s very talented.”
The teen used a program called Macromedia Flash Professional 8 to create the games.
Gambler gave Drummond input on what first-grade students are learning.
Armed with that information, he created the interactive learning games. He also took digital photos of Central Manor’s playground and created a computer image of it as the background for the word-chunk game.
On the second game, for uppercase and lowercase letters, a cartoon version of the Central Manor Elementary School building on Blue Rock Road appears in the background.
By Tuesday morning, Drummond was back in his independent study class with Canady making adjustments to the games based on the first-graders’ feedback.
He learned from the kids that a penny didn’t show up as it should in the store game.
And, “I learned a lot about what they liked,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect at first. Now I have a better understanding of what I should put into the next games I make.”
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