Teacher resources for incorporating AgentSheets in the classroom

AgentSheets is a revolutionary tool that lets anyone create interactive simulations and games through a user-friendly drag and drop interface. Running simulations is an effective means of learning, but creating your own simulations and games challenges you to develop a thorough knowledge and understanding of your own ideas.

If you are a teacher trying to incorporate programming into your classes, game design is a great way to do it. Below are some resources that may be useful for you. This is an evolving space of material that over time should be extended and refined. Please contact us with any feedback on this material or to contribute any new material generated by you that would be useful for other AgentSheets users.

Please note that some this material assumes you are using the Windows or the Intel Mac version of AgentSheets.

manuals	Anatomy of a Project: describes the structure of AgentSheets projects can be useful when files get misplaced (even though we suggest always letting the system take care of where to put files, in case things get misplaced, this can help you figure out where to put for instance worksheets that are not in the right place for the project manager to open them correctly)
	Getting started: a step-by-step introduction on how to build your first project, the Virus Attack simulation a good first exposure for the students
	Reference Manual: a description of the complete menu structure of AgentSheets including all the dialog boxes, tools, action commands, condition commands, triggers, parameters and simulation properties useful to learn about details of specific operations and commands language reference can be accessed from within the application by selecting a command in the palletes and clicking on the "Web Help" button
	Quick reference: provides quick intro to some of the terminology used in the context of AgentSheets and brief explanations how to use AgentSheets. please note that some of the screenshots are fairly old and shows from the Mac version. For completely up-to-date information, please refer to the application manuals.

videos	Training videos for different aspects of the AgentSheets tool that among others include the Getting Started tutorial and using Ristretto to create Java applets

complete activities	Middle School Math: As part of the ESCOT (Educational Software Components of Tomorrow) research project, involving geographically-dispersed universities and research organizations, complete activities for middle school math were created. The ones collected here are the ones involving AgentSheets simulations as their main (achor) component.
	Greek educational activities for a variety of subjects: Under the Chrysallides Project, funded mainly by the European Union, the Greek Ministry of Education and the Computer Technology Institute of Greece, and in collaboration with Tessera Multimedia educational activities were developed with AgentSheets. Upon completion of this project, these activities will be used in all elementary, middle, and high schools in Greece. disclaimer: these are all in Greek!
	Tri-P-LETS project at the University of Memphis: under an NSF-funded project, the University of Memphis has been using AgentSheets in multiple high-schools in the Memphis area to teach students about Computer Science. You can find a lot of the projects and material that got created as part of this on their site.
	Social studies teacher guides: based on projects we conducted at New Vista High School in Boulder, and in collaboration with the teacher, we created material for using the student-created projects in educational activities.

AgentSheets projects	Showcase: a collection of representative AgentSheets projects. can either run them online as applets or for some can download the source and run them within the application (predominantly Mac versions currently available).
	Biology simulations: a collection of simulations in biology subjects such as ecosystems, blood types, forest fires etc.
	Physics simulations: a collection of simulations in physics subjects such as heat diffusion, filters etc.
	Games: a collection of classic games such as Frogger and Sokoban created by AgentSheets Inc. and games created by students (predominatly middle school).
	Some games are also available from undergraduate Game Design courses:
	University of Colorado: Computer Science course Gamelet Design for Education, Spring 2006. Students created games as part of their course work. Examples include Frogger, Sokoban, Space Invaders, the Sims, Collaborative Diffusion, Segregation, and various games as a Final Project.
	University of Lugano, Switzerland: Software Atelier II, Spring 2007. Students created games as part of their course work. Examples include Frogger, Sokoban, The Sims, and Rock-Scissors-Paper Tank War.

tutorials	Buiding the Frogger game: a tutorial created by Burke Taft and updated by Mark Savignano, technology teachers in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), as a guide for students to build the classic arcade game of Frogger. To include this tutorial in a larger design activity, Mark also created this design packet to go along with the simulation building guide. currently password-protected and only available to BVSD teachers
	Building the Robinhood game: using diffusion-based agent tracking techniques, this tutorial created by Mark Savignano of BVSD gives student a step-by-step guide to build games where one character is followed by others. advanced material password-protected and only available to BVSD teachers

other	Gamelet design process: these Powerpoint slides step through a design process we call "Gamelet Design" to illustrate the creation of the classic arcade game of Frogger. In contrast to the Frogger tutorial above, this focuses on the design process, not the implementation of the game.
	Agent design patterns: this document provides a collection of agent design patterns found in various games and simulations. Patterns are behaviors that can occur in multiple settings.

academic	Papers: More information about AgentSheets and how it has been used in educational papers
	Applications such as simulations could play a major role in improving school quality ("Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education in the United States", by the Panel on Educational Technology from President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, 1997). Moreover, a study by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) found that students in classes which used computer simulations to teach mathematics made significant gains on standardized tests, and scored significantly higher than did students in classes where computers were used for “drill and practice” ("Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics", by Wenglinsky, 1998).

more example usage	A variety of users ranging from elementary school kids to NASA scientists have used AgentSheets to simulate anything from animals in ecosystems to E.coli bacteria in zero gravity. Some of these examples can be found in our general showcase. The Educational Showcase describes a range of applications and examples of AgentSheets as it was specifically used in educational settings.