Unfortunately due to Covid-19, our classes have been replaced by e-learning. Luckily that hasn’t stopped us from doing our work and learning every day. Last week in science class we started a new unit on biodiversity. Our teacher assigned some interesting assignments. I placed them all inside a google slide presentation to share with you today. 

Assignments include:

• Practice using scientific classification tree (on the arts)
• 1 classification from each of the following: animal kingdom,  plant kingdom, and fungus kingdom
• Classifying unknown leaves from our backyards
• Pics from a scavenger hunt activity on all forms of biodiversity found around our houses

My slide presentation:

What started as a book report for English class became a really fun project to work on during this time in quarantine. We had to read a book of our choice that we had at home and create an artifact about it. When I say artifact, I mean, a web page, a children’s book, YouTube channel, or board game. I chose a board game. In this post, I will give you the link to the instructions for my board game, show you some components in a video, and answer some reflection questions.

Here are the instructions:

            Finn has about 5 years before a rare disease will steal most of his vision. At first, he didn’t realize that the disease could totally turn his life upside down.  For one, the people at school who he thought were his friends started ignoring him. Then his parents took away his mountain bike and gave him a stationary bike, and finally, people started treating him like he lost his brain. Finn hated it! Now it’s the summertime. All Finn wants to do is go to his cottage in Splitsville (they go every year). This year his mom asks him if he would like to bring a friend there, but Finn knows it’s only because he’s blind. When his panic attacks start getting worse he starts counting everything! Especially the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until “lights outs”. One day he and his friend are exploring, and find a magical island. On this magical island, time is totally stretched out, and Finn can see!!! But not everyone “sees” the magic, it is only for people who need more time. 

While playing Sight Unseen you and your friends will venture through the forest to complete your glimmer line tasks. Then, you will paddle through the water to get to the island. On the island, you will try to learn as much as you can to gain knowledge tokens. The first person to get 4 knowledge tokens ends the game. The person who has the most knowledge points wins the game.

Components:

• 4 playing pieces 
• 120 resource cards 
• 20 blind cards
• 20 friendship cards 
• 30 glimmer cards
• 1 normal die
• 1 resource die
• 1 direction die 
• 5 rowboat cards
• 20 ‘’ pass by’’ tokens
• 18 knowledge tokens 

Setup:

1. Place the board in the middle of the playing area.
2. Shuffle all playing cards, then place each type in a different pile.
3. Let everyone choose a cabin that they want to stay in for the rest of the summer, then place one of your ‘’pass by’’ tokens on your cabin as well as your playing piece.
4. Velcro the island onto the board, and place all of the knowledge tokens on top of it.

Overall Goal:

The goal of the game is to get as many knowledge points as possible. These points can be earned by completing glimmer line tasks which then allow you to get knowledge tokens from the island. (Note: you only get the knowledge points from glimmer line cards if you go to the island)The first person to retrieve 4 knowledge tokens from the island will end the game, but they may not be the winner. The person who gains the most knowledge points at the end of the game will be crowned the winner. 

Unique board:

The Sight Unseen board is an unusual game board in the way that it has 3 different formats. It was designed to look like a map of the cottage area where Finn stayed every summer in the book. Just like when you’re traveling through different landscapes and need to travel in different ways, there are different ways to travel through the different sections of the board. The outer ring of the board is supposed to be the forest section around Finns cottage. The thin brown ring in front of the forest is the dock surrounding the lake, it is the ‘’ transfer zone ‘’ from the forest to the lake. As you probably have already guessed, the big blue section in the middle of the board represents the lake. Finally, the small brown rectangle in the center represents the magical island a.k.a. “Perpetuum” (in the book). 

Cards:

Glimmer Line cards: In the book, Finn described a glimmer line as a flash of blue light. Not everyone can see their own glimmer line, it is only meant for people who need more time. Finn needed more time to accept being blind and realize that being blind doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. The glimmer line is what allowed Finn to get in and out of the island. As Constant said, (Constant is the lady Finn met at the island) “ there’s more good stuff in the world than bad, it just depends on what you chose to see” (page 204). 

For the game, I modified this concept. These cards offer challenges that need to be completed to be able to advance to the island and gain knowledge points. 4 glimmer line tasks will need to be completed by one person in order to finish the game. 

Friendship cards: These cards depend on the different things that happened between the three friends in the book. Some cards are good, and others are bad. 

Blind cards: There are 2 different types of blind cards. Cougar cards allow you to complete your glimmer line tasks with fewer resources than usual. You might wonder why I chose a random thing like a cougar card. The reason why is because in the book, the first time Finn and Cheese saw the island was when a cougar chased them. The other type of blind card is a Mixup card, Some of them are based on things that Finn mixed up because he was blind, for example using foot cream instead of toothpaste. Others just mix things up a little bit during the game and make the game more interesting.

Boat Cards: In order to get to the dock, you need to buy a boat. A boat costs 2 “wood” resources.  Once you have gotten your boat card you can proceed onto the dock and into the water. 

Resource cards: There are 4 types of resource cards. These are needed to complete your glimmer line tasks.

1. Flowers – the flower resource card relates to when Cheese and Finn found a flower that Finn’s mom wanted them to find for her to paint. 
2. Woods – the woods resource card relates to the forests around Finn’s cottage
3. Rocks – the rock resource card related to a big event in the book when Finn, Cheese, and Tab went to jump off cliffs into the water. A lot of the drama parts in the book built off of this event. 
4. Leaves – the reason why I chose to do leaves as one of the resource cards is because one of the first times Finn went to the island he could see everything including all the leaves on the trees in front of him. As he said himself “ I’d come to think of leaves as one big thing; a giant green skin that trees slipped into every spring” (page 46).

Navigating the board:

Forest section:

 Goal : In the forest section of the board, your goal is to complete your glimmer line tasks- collecting your resources, and going around the board a specific amount of times.

Squares: 

1. Cabin Square: Start the game here. Every time you pass your cabin, pick up a resource of your choice and place one of your coloured tokens there so that you remember how many times you have passed by your cabin when proving that you have finished your Glimmer line task. 
2. Friendship Square: When you land on this square, pick up a Friendship card.
3. Roll for a Resource: When you land on this square, roll the resource die, and depending on what resource you get, pick up the number of resources listed on the right-hand side of the square.
4. Blind Square: When you land on this square, pick up a blind card.
5. When you land on the square with the yellow bicycle, it will either tell you to go backward or forwards a number of squares. For example, Go backward x 4 means go back 4 squares.
6. Quote squares: When you land on a square with a quote, take a break from picking up cards and enjoy the quote.

Dock section:

 Once you finish your glimmer line task, and have bought a boat, go to the nearest cabin to access the dock. Let’s say the dock is 3 spaces away and you roll a 5. You can stop at square 3 (out of 5) to get to the dock. Once you are at the dock remain there until your next roll.

Lake Section:

Goal: In the lake section of the board, your goal is to land on an entranceway to the island. 

Direction Die: Once you have reached the lake section, a new die is introduced in place of the resource die. This die is used after you have rolled your number die. It shows you what direction you are supposed to move in. For example, let’s say you roll a 4 with the number die. You then roll the direction die and it lands on an upward arrow. You move 4 spaces up.  

Special Squares:

1. Lightning Bolt square: Just like in the book, when Cheese and Tab went canoeing in a storm to go and find Finn, if you land on this square you are hit by lightning and your boat is damaged and you fall out of your boat. Finn saves you by pulling you out of the water into his boat, but this causes you to miss your next turn.
2. Current square: If you land on this square, the current will pull you back one square in the direction you came from.
3. Entrance square: If you land on this square, the next turn you will immediately be able to go to the island, no dice rolling required. 

Here are some pics:

Reflection Questions:

1.  Explain why you chose your specific artifact type to connect to your book: I chose my specific artifact type to connect to my book because my book is an adventure story. A lot of games are adventure-based.
2. Explain why you chose the elements from your book that you included in your artifact: I referenced this answer throughout my instructions.
3. Reflect upon what you would change if you were going through this process again