Product outcome

Project website ( product outcome)
What a relief! Our project website is finally done! What has seemed like an impossible feat has now become possible. The website now consist of a main page, with our introductory video right in the middle of screen, followed by 4 links at the bottom. Namely :Quiz,Info, Blog, and credits.

I am quite satisfied with the outcome, as i have been working on this product for more than a month, and now, with every thing coming together, the website has truly become educational and interactive ( the main aim of our website) . However, despite me being in a temporary state of euphoria, i still have to get back to work, as the website still has some minor bloopers (eg. spelling error and FTP errors).

Here are some screen shots of our website :

Project introductory video completed!

This video was made with iMovie and we will be using it as an introductory video for both our semi-finals presentation as well as our website. We wanted to make the video as informal as possible, giving it a more "movie-trailer" like effect to further enhance the attractiveness of our project. We got all of the pictures from the internet and added many special effects and even some music! Hope you enjoy our video.

M.A.Y.A.N.S Simplified Semi-Finals Crossword puzzles ALL done!

After spending some time in the previous week researching on our respective topics of the Mayans Civilisation, we had finally managed to consolidate and summarise all research information. Now, we are focusing more on our product outcomes which are our flash website, colouring booklet, crossword puzzles and an introductory video.

In order to cultivate our target audience who are the upper primary students' interest in our project, we had decided to create some fun games and quizzes such as crossword puzzles for the students to try on. I had used the EclipseCrossword software to create the 4 crossword puzzles according each of our topics. Firstly, in order to make the process easier, we all have to search for some keywords for the crossword puzzles while researching. After spending much time to look for keywords, I had to try to think of the clues for each of the keywords before inserting them using the software.

After that, I spent some time to choose the design and layout of the crossword puzzles in a way such that it appeals to our target audience. In addition, the software which I had used also helped me to create a web page from the crossword puzzles. Hence, I had created 4 crossword puzzles in an interactive web page with JavaScript format. Also, the crossword puzzles are created according to these four main topics of the Mayans Civilisation which all branched down into specific sub-topics:

• Lifestyle:
• Writing System
• Agriculture

• Culture:
• Arts
• Gods
• Religion

• Contributions of the Mayans:
• Inventions
• Astronomy
• Mathematics

• Development:
• Timeline
• Rise & Fall

So, here are the links to our crossword puzzles:

• Crossword puzzle (1): http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0452/crosswordpuzzle(1).html
• Crossword puzzle (2): http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0452/crosswordpuzzle(2).html
• Crossword puzzle (3): http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0452/crosswordpuzzle(3).html
• Crossword puzzle (4): http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0452/crosswordpuzzle(4).html

Besides our crossword puzzles, we had also done our colouring booklet and the flash website. As for the introductory video, we will be creating it using Windows Movie Maker and also include this video in the home page of our flash website for our target audience to view it. We will update the blog for the progress and updates.

Finalised Work plan and Group Dynamics

Work Distribution:

Li Wen (Researcher): The Mayans’ contributions to our world:

         I.      Inventions

       II.      Astronomy

     III.      Mathematics

 - how it affected our history and/or the modern world?

-          Importance

Their contributions will show the impact they had on the world and why they are so important. This will show their scientific knowledge and genius.

Joe (Researcher): – How did they live? What was life like for them? Did they have any religious beliefs (Culture)? ……

         I.      Arts

       II.      Gods

     III.      Culture

-          Importance

Their cultural side will show a different view of them other than their genius is the sciences. This will really show the social side of them.

Samson (Web-designer): Develop ideas for the website to make it more interesting. Find out other interesting facts(Life style) about the Mayans Civilization:

             I.     Writing system E.g Maya script   
  II.      Literacy
III.      Agriculture

Kevin (Group leader): The development of the Mayan Civilization and how they improved and changed (Rise and Fall of the Mayans):

              I.    Geographic extent of the Mayans civilization, known as the Maya area E.g Why did they live?  
   II.    History
 III.     PopulationIV.     Architecture of the Mayans (Features of their buildings)

Examples - Time lines, mind maps, flowcharts.

-     Importance

Their development is very important as it would show how they coped with different problems and change to adapt to it.

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Group Dynamics (Updated)

• ALL
  - Research the respective topics of the Mayans according to the work distribution above
  - Plan for interviews with the primary students (target audience)
• Joe & Li Wen- Research the respective topics of the Mayans according to the work distribution above
  - Complete the colouring booklet (Fig. 1)
  - Consolidate information for the respective topics and send it to Samson for the flash website (make sure its sorted out)
  - Complete the crossword puzzle for the primary students
  - Update our project blog on the progress
• Samson- Research the respective topics of the Mayans according to the work distribution above
  - Send some keywords from the respective topics to Joe for the crossword puzzle
  - Consolidate all the information into four different sections for the flash website (Fig. 2)
  - Complete the design of the flash website
  - Create the introductory video with Kevin for the judges (to be added in the 1st page of the flash website)
  - Update our project blog on the progress
• Kevin
  - Research the respective topics of the Mayans according to the work distribution above
  - Update the project blog on the progress
  - Discuss with Samson on the introductory video for the judges
  - Start to think of the layout of the boardgame using ‘The Game of Life’ format

So, our learning package will include:

•  Flash website (Fig. 2)
• Learning colouring booklet with interesting facts and quizzes (Fig. 1)
• Crossword puzzles
• An introductory video
• Inference skills questions (to be added in the booklet)
• *Boardgame

We will posting our finalised research data for the semi-finals soon.

Commencing project

The June holidays have just started, and the exams have ended.Therefore, it is about time we start to begin doing our project work.

After the prelims, we have made certain changes in our plans. Firstly we have decided to use dream weaver to construct our product web site. This is mainly because our website would be loaded with information. Therefore we realized that by using flash, it would be more difficult for us to construct the website, as it will waste more time. Secondly, we have also tried to contact a primary school, to see if we could show case our project. The aim of this mini exhibition, is to raise awareness about the Mayan culture.Lastly, we have also change our distribution of work.

We have already begin to execute certain parts of our project, but we would still need to work at a faster pace, if we want to complete 100 % of the project by the June holidays.

Designing a website

For this year's projects day,we have decided to make our site stand out as much as possible. Therefore i decided that we should use flash cs4 to construct our site. The reason why i chose flash was because of its ability to create animations and buttons within a few simple steps. However, using flash also has it disadvantages. Flash does not allow constant content update and would require 2-4 times as many buttons as i would usually need to make a HTML site. However, I am still sticking to flash, as i want the site to look as eye catching as possible.

So , to begin , I had to source for inspirations and decide on a suitable theme for the site. The first thing that the group propose was a time machine, as the Mayans civilization was ancient. Hence I proceeded with the idea and concept of a time machine in mind . My initial idea was to have gears and a rotating platform for our navigation.However, as i began to draw, think and construct the navigation bar, I realize that the idea of a rotating platform was too difficult, and therefore i proposed a new idea. I decided, to incorporate rotating elements and gears, into one single navigation bar. The idea, was feasible , and hence i proceeded with designing the gears.

After designing the gears i had to arrange the gears so that they would look like they were interacting with each other. However, I could not decided on how to arrangement , due to the infinite possibilities. Hence I decided to search for themes on the internet. And after hours of research, i settled on a "steam punk" kind of theme. In case you are wondering what steam punk is, here is a definition from Wikipedia " Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date." This basically helped helped me decided on a form/figure for the navigation bar.

So here is the current result of what i have been working on :



(must edit the post.... )

Mentor selection!

After a few meetings in Term 1, our group now has to find our project mentor. As our project is in category 4 which is resource development, we have to find someone who is specialised in this area to help us in this project. After much discussion, we found an experienced mentor who is able to give us valuable advice to our project.


On this wednesday (Term 1 week 6), we approached our mentor and asked him about our usefulness and potential of our project. He told us that our project has to be unique and different from others in order to capture our target audience who are the upper primary students' attention. Also, based on his past year experience, he told us that our learning package will be more useful and effective to the students with the use of flash animation.

 

Thus, Kevin (group leader) decided that instead of making a normal website where we crump all our research data in, we should create and design an interactive flash website which is created using Adobe flash CS4 professional software. As this is also one of our product outcome for our project, our mentor advised us to start working on the design and layout of the flash website first to ensure that we can finish in time. Hence, Samson, who is in charge of our flash website, had started creating the first draft of our website.

Image sources:

• http://blog.smartfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/mentor.gif 
• http://www.mentre.com.au/images/mentors.jpg