CMSC 19929: Creating Computer Games for Learning

University of Chicago Pre-College Program — Summer 2026

Welcome to Computer Games For Learning!

Please the full course syllabus carefully at least once to make sure you understand the course logistics and expectations!

Classroom:

Time: July 7–23, 2026, Monday through Friday (9AM - 3PM)
Location: Ryerson Phys Lab (Rm 255 - lectures / Rm 277 - labs).

Asynchronous Communication:

All course materials will be released on this website, following the course schedule below.
All assignments will be submitted and graded via Gradescope.
General course communication will occur on Piazza.
- This is the best way to ask any and all questions related to this course. I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza instead of emailing me because you will be more likely to get faster responses (from either me or the TA) and other students may also benefit from your questions. We will check Piazza at least 3 times per day and try to address your questions as soon as possible.
- For any general or clarification questions that don’t leak information about your solution, please ask as a public question.
- For any questions they may leak your solution, please ask as a private question.
- For any sensitive communications that you do not wish other students or the TA to see, you are free to email me. Please see course syllabus for some notes on sending email.

Course Schedule (subject to change)

Coding practice = invidual; Design warmup = group; Open work time = time allocated in class to work on project milestones.
Expand lecture titles to see reading list for each day. Make sure to submit reading responses on Gradescope before each lecture.
Lecture slides will be uploaded by the end of day every day; coding practice solutions will be uploaded after each assignment due date.

Week	Day	Date	Lecture (mornings)	Lab (afternoons)
Week 1	Tue	7/7	Part 1: Introduction & What is an Educational Game? lecture slides reading: N/A Part 2: Python Basics lecture slides	Design warmup Coding practice
	Wed	7/8	Part 1: Scaffolding and Learning Trajectories lecture slides reading: ZPD, LT (abstract, intro, Table 1, Fig. 1) Part 2: Strings and Lists lecture slides	Design warmup Coding practice
			[Assignment Due] Project Milestone #0: Finalize group members (Wed 7/8)
	Thu	7/9	Part 1: Constructivism & Flow Theory lecture slides reading: Const-1, Const-2, FT Part 2: Conditionals and Iteration lecture slides	Open work time Coding practice
	Fri	7/10	Part 1: Game Analysis Frameworks lecture slides reading: IGDPD (Chapter 2; no Gradescope questions) Part 2: Functions lecture slides	Open work time Coding practice
			[Assignment Due] Project Milestone #1: Target Users and Learning Content (Sat 7/11)
Week 2	Mon	7/13	Part 1: Classes and Objects lecture slides Part 2: Motivation, Player Types lecture slides reading: Player Types Handout (no Gradescope questions) Guest Lecturer: Erica Goodwin	Coding practice Open work time
	Tue	7/14	Exploring Pygame lecture slides	Open work time
			[Assignment Due] Project Milestone #2: Basic Game Design (Tue 7/14)
	Wed	7/15	Part 1: Inclusive Design, UDL lecture slides reading: N/A Part 2: Designing Interactive Systems to Support Children’s Critical and Reflective Engagement with AI Lecture slides TBA Guest Lecturer: Erica Goodwin, Aayushi Dangol	Coding practice: Pygame warmup Open work time
	Thu	7/16	Collapsing Qubits: A Quantum Themed Card Game reading: Collapsing Qubits website Guest Lecturer: David Gonzalez-Maldonado	Coding practice: Mini game (choose 1) Open work time
	Fri	7/17	(Students) — Flash Talk and Peer Review Workshop lecture slides	Field Trip: Weston Game Lab Coding Practice: Pygame (cont.)
Week 3	Mon	7/20	Assessment of Learning lecture slides reading: N/A	Open work time
			[Assignment Due] Project Milestone #3: Final Game Design & MVP Description (Mon 7/20)
	Tue	7/21	AI in Games lecture slides reading: N/A	Open work time
	Wed	7/22	(Students) — Mock Final Presentation and Peer Feedback lecture slides	Open work time
	Thu	7/23	(Students) — Final Presentation (“Final Exam”)	Movie Time and Bonding Activities
			[Extra Credit] Project Milestone #4: MVP Implementation (Thu 7/23)

Milestones

Milestone	Description	Due
#0 - non-graded	Finalize group members	Wed 7/8
#1 - grading criteria	Target Users and Learning Content	Sat 7/11
#2	Basic Game Design	Tue 7/14
#3	Final Game Design and MVP Description	Mon 7/20
#4 - extra credit	MVP Implementation	Thu 7/23

Resources

Recommended IDE for Pygame:

PyCharm: Guide to Installing Python and PyCharm (follow the instructions for your operating system)
VSCode (You can follow the same instructions in the link above to install Python 3 before downloading setting up VSCode)