Stagecast Creator 2

Through the use of a graphical human interface, Stagecast Creator enables pupils (or teachers) to create and modify interactive visual simulations, creating the characters in the simulation and programming their behaviour, the rules by which they interact. The resulting creation is referred to as a 'world' or application and can be used to exercise logic and understanding of complex concepts in many subject areas.

The basics of creating an application are quite simple: pupils create objects, animate them and make them interact. The objects can be made to do different things depending on what objects are around them, as well as depending on user-defined properties of those objects, such as weight, energy level or speed. By defining these properties for the objects and writing rules for the objects' behaviour, your pupils can create interesting simulations complete with key-controlled interaction and sound effects.

• Worlds can be changed by each person who uses them.
• You can make your own worlds or modify worlds that others have made.
• When you play with worlds, you're not limited by someone else's decisions on what the characters should do and look like as you can change the rules or decide to play the world as it is.
• You can also control the characters in the world by using the mouse and keyboard and create rules to make the characters interact with each other, then see what happens.
• Because it's Java-based, when you've finished you can share your creations by posting them on your website.
• With the free downloadable Stagecast Web Player, anyone can view and play with the worlds you've made in Stagecast Creator.
• It can be used to meet the requirements of ICT Key Stage 3 in the area of skills, knowledge and understanding, as well as being an ideal tool to aid development of understanding of concepts in many other subject areas.
• Each pack comes with a single CD ROM and Teacher's Guide to give you extra help and ideas in using Creator in your lessons.

• Simulations can be shown to the class as a whole. These can help to explain complex concepts.
• You can easily demonstrate how to create new simulations to the class before they proceed to do their own.
• Whole class interaction can be encouraged when, for example, creating new simulations. You could encourage different pupils to input the next stage of the simulation on the whiteboard.
• The interactive whiteboard will enable you to easily demonstrate what happens when you change the parameters and rules of the simulation to see what the cause and effects will be.

Jenny Habgood, an educator in the UK, has developed a package of resources for using Stagecast Creator to satisfy a key part of primary ICT curriculum in the UK (control and simulation).  Intended for teachers for year 3 through year 6, the package contains progressive lessons for making computer simulations and games with Stagecast Creator.  The resources include learning objectives, correlation to standards, and detailed lesson plans.

You can find these resources on the 'Downloads' tab, they are entitled 'SchemeOfWork.zip' under the section 'Free Stagecast Resources'.