ASSIGNMENTS (more
detailed description):
WARNING #1: Many specific
directions to you are included below. You will lose points for not
following these directions. Print them out and check them before and
after each item.
WARNING#2: 4 of the games on your
diskette (Moida3, Farmtown, Depth 3, and Morph 5)
have NOT been assigned any points. DO NOT DO THEM!! (unless
you're really bored or something).
WEEK A:
1. E-mail and Web Assignment: a. Purchase the Possibilities
Workbook (it has a number on the cover), b. Go to the computer lab of your
choice (I prefer Mendocino Hall 2007), c. While there, view the syllabus
(http://www.csus.edu/indiv/d/doolittle/syllabus.htm), d. Get a SacLink account (they’ll show you), and e. E-mail me
(psych49@csus.edu) a message containing
your name, SS#, SacLink account # (sac followed by 5
digits <This is a must!>), your section id (P49S1, P49S2, P49S3,
or P49S4) and Possibilities Workbook #. I will then create a diskette for
you and put it in an evelope which you can retrieve
from the student pickup box in the Psych Dept Office (Amador 350). Because
snags are common, do this assignment RIGHT AWAY! ALL e-mail from me to you will go to your saclink
account. To use an off-campus e-mail account, modify your saclink “forwarding” settings (they'll show you
how) to get my messages forwarded to you. You can send your homework in from anywhere.
WEEK B:
1. Cave of the Troll: This assignment is a computer game which
you will play on a Windows-type computer, which may belong to you, a friend, or
the university. This game is a text-based, role-playing,
science-simulation game (whew!); which is to say, you enter an imaginary world
represented by words on a computer screen and type verb-object commands (GET
BROOM) in order to make things happen. By typing commands, you bumble around in
this imaginary world until you have accomplished the things I programmed into
the computer. The goal of this exercise and the other text adventure games, is for you to make sufficient and varied MISTAKES!
This may sound strange, but what I want you to do is to just TRY THINGS and see what happens. This goal means that you can relax about
being "efficient" and concentrate on being "innovative." In
Cave of the Troll, for example, after you READ SIGN, you will learn that you
are supposed to GET some coins (DIME, etc.) and DROP them at the entrance.
After you GO SOUTH and other directions, you will see some coins as well as a
BROOM, and later, a KEY, which you can USE if you want. Copy the map in the
space provided in the Possibilities workbook (you'll do this for all the
adventures). The text adventures I have for you are ordered in terms of
difficulty; and, you may find that you don’t make a lot of mistakes in
the early ones. Be of good cheer; the later ones will give you lots of
opportunities to make mistakes and be innovative – you may even have some
that you spend hours on and don’t finish and that’s okay
– it’s the mistakes that count – the things you try that
don’t work. Thomas Edison once said, "I failed my way to
success." I want him to be your model. When the late Noble laureate Linus Pauling was asked how he
managed to have so many good ideas, he said, "I just have a lot of ideas
and throw away the bad ones." Be a Pauling!
Here are the instructions for using
the diskette I gave you: 1.Put your diskette in the drive it fits in. This will
probably be the A: drive. From Windows: Click on Start (lower left corner), the
click Run. In the Run window, type A:MENU
(DON'T BROWSE!) and click OK. The MENU program should present you a
screen with a large number of programs to choose from. You will be choosing
alternative A, entitled
When you are done with TROLL (you
READ SIGN after you DROP PENNY as I recall), the program should return you to
MENU and you can choose QUIT (alternative Q) from the menu.You
should now be back in Windows. Now, double click on NOTEPAD, a program in the
ACCESSORIES folder. In NOTEPAD, pull down the File menu to OPEN. In the lower
right hand corner the drive menu is probably set to C (the hard drive). Change
it to A (the drive where your progress is stored). In the upper left window,
you should see TROLDATA.TXT, which is the record of your progress in the
2. MOIDA1: (moida in da foist) Choose this game from the menu and you will be presented with a series of 10 deductive reasoning puzzles. Please read and study syllabus, homework descriptions, and the Deductive Reasoning chapter of the Possibilities workbook before starting. I’ve put a little quiz at the start of MOIDA1 to test how well you’ve studied this material. Unfortunately, question 10 (points for DR exam is out of date) -- Answer this question TRUE (though it isn't) to humor the program. Note: #11 is TRUE also. After the beginning stuff, you will be faced with 10 logical puzzles to solve. Keep records of your play in the Possibilities workbook matrices. I recommend that you do not start this assignment unless you have plenty of time because it does not allow you to (SAVE GAME and RESTORE GAME the way the text adventures do). You must solve at least 9 out of the 10 in a set. The results of this activity contribute information to REPORT.TXT and MOIDDATA.TXT which you can e-mail to me when you have succeeded. Again, make a paper copy.
To send me an e-mail of your work, bring up REPORT.TXT into NOTEPAD, as usual. Then from the Edit pull-down menu choose Select All, which will highlight the entire document. Then, from Edit, select Copy. This will place a copy of the document onto the computer’s clipboard (RAM memory). Now, go into your favorite e-mail program and compose a message to the homework address: psych49@csus.edu On the Subject line, type first P49S1, P49S2, P49S3, or P49S4 depending on your section number. Then after a space, type the name of the package being sent, e.g., WEEKB HOMEWORK. Then hit the spacebar again and type your name. (Note:This must be absolutely correct in order for my e-mail filter to work properly. Improperly addressed homework will be discarded and must be re-submitted, so be compulsive about this. DO NOT send me an e-mail message asking if I received it - just watch the gradesheet and see if you received credit.) When the cursor is in the body of the e-mail message, pull down the Edit menu and select Paste. This action will paste a copy of REPORT.TXT (or whatever you have on the clipboard) onto the e-mail message. Now, in your e-mail message (just below REPORT.TXT), type the words: APPROACH TO CAVE OF THE TROLL. Follow this with a description of 1. how you approached this kind of problem initially, and, 2. how you approach it now. You will do this for ALL (repeat ALL) homework assignments. This process is called metacognition and will help you if you do it conscientiously. Now, go back to NOTEPAD and OPEN and COPY TROLDATA.TXT. PASTE this into your e-mail program. Follow this with your APPROACH TO MOIDA1 and MOIDDATA.TXT (when they're done). Finally, e-mail me this long document of the entire WEEKB HOMEWORK. You've been given more time than necessary for this assignment because these e-mail procedures (COPY and PASTE, etc) may be new to you (if you have an attachment to attachments, break it). Keep a copy of your approaches.
Here's what a sample looks like:
Report for
","DEBRA LYNN 4392","
"
Task #required #so-far
status"
" Cave of
the Troll 1 1 Been there,
done that! aoe"
"
Moida1----------- 9 10 Finished! akes"
[Editor's note:I removed some of this to save space. Include the
whole page in yours.]
"
24DE04
266 289 752 6898"
APPROACH TO
THE CAVE OF THE TROLL
Was concerned
originally about the layout of the rooms, felt that
they were of the upmost importance. But later I found
I could methodically go down, then east or west, and cover each level and then
go down anotherlevel and do the same thing. Did write down the amount needed to get, 41 cents, and where to
drop them off at the end. Plus the 5 verbs necessary
for this game. Still wanted to use other verbs and request though.Rather forward of me but I was curious if more could
be accomplished. Read the signs even when not suggested, but unless fear of
computer crash, I would read the signs again. Gave me help and I didn't feel soalone on the quest. Remembered the locked vault, but
wasn't sure where the key would be. Again reading the signs helped to move me
forward by telling me "to sweep". Next time won't be so worried about
making a mistake, even when told I could, it's a hard thing to give up. But the
confidence gets better with each try.
04:08:47DEBRA LYNN 4392 D92 04:01:56 02-27-1998 D92READ SIGN D92S D92E D92W D92GET BROOMD92E D92D D92GET QUARTER D92E D92GET NICKELD92W D92W D92READ SIGN D92USE BROOM D92GET KEYD92E D92E D92W D92S D92GET DIMED92N D92E D92W D92U D92USE KEYD92E D92GET PENNY D92DROP BROOM D92GET PENNY D92WD92N D92DROP PENNY D92DROP QUARTER D92DROP NICKELD92DROP KEYD92DROP DIME D92 04:01:56 02-27-1998
APPROACH TO
MOIDA1
The first two times I just
went in, looked and went back out! Then I applied myself! I printed the facts
and hilighted the ones that didn't apply, like
"victim regrets the whole thing". After working in healthinsurance, it's kind of natural to just concern
yourself with the facts you need and discard the rest. The first game I kind of
went all over the page by the time I figured out the answer. After that I
combined thetwo or three facts that were alike,
"bald or full of hair" etc. You kind of get into a rhythm finding the
facts that are important and primary in figuring out the puzzle. Ex. "all
the members hate bees" came first tome, then "Baker was a
member", then "witness loved insects", so therefore "baker
was not the witness". Once you eliminate the obvious falsehoods, you are
left with the truth. Hopefully! Guess I don't trust my firstinstincts,
'cause I double check the results. But if you don't check, you could then miss
the "obvious" yourself. Plus I drew a lot of pictures myself so I
could visualize what I was assuming, which helpedme,
such as the taller of the two, etc., and then where one of the characters fit
in the game.
q
266 MOIDA1 -2 successes=
0 0 debra
695 MOIDA1 -788
successes= 10 10
Week C:
Week D:
Week E
Week F:
Week G:
Week H.
Week I:
Week J:
Week K:
Week L: Boardwalk (By now, you know the drill. Good
luck.)
Return to syllabus: syllabus.htm