Today, the students learned how to create a Java model and draw in the cells in the canvas. Each “person” in their models carried individual features such as eyes, noses and mouths.
The model’s functions were very similar to a disease model in Netlogo. A disease is spread among civilians, where infected people may or may not spread the disease further, which is completely up to chance. After a certain amount of time passes, the person will be cured of the disease. Percentages are toggled by bars controlled by the user. Some bars include infection rate, recovery rate, initial population and days (or ticks) for a person to recover. The model also included a graph that accurately captured the amount of people infected, cured and susceptible.
Today’s class focused on graphics. Students learned how to create a symbol that represented a face using Java, which is very different than just drawing it out in other programs like AgentSheets. Even simple features like eyes had to be given X and Y coordinates. Students were able to have more fun and freedom later, creating pointed elf hats, ears, and even objects like horns.
After the break, students worked on creating a legend for the characters in their models. The colors of the legends and labels were identified among other things.
Finally, students could decide whether or not to save their projects that they worked on by sending it to themselves using an alternate email.