Summer-themed text adventure

 

No homework? Perfect time to code your own summer-themed text adventure.

🎮 Gaming in Python – Creating a Summer Holiday Adventure

Summer holidays are the perfect time to learn something new — and what better way to build skills and have fun than by creating your own text-based adventure game in Python?

Forget mindlessly playing games — this is about designing, coding, and thinking creatively. It’s not just coding, it’s storytelling, logic, data handling, and project management rolled into one.

Welcome to the world of Python adventure games.

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🧠 Why Text-Based Games?

Before Fortnite, before Minecraft, there was Zork, Adventureland, and The Hobbit — games that ran purely on text. You typed commands like go north, open door, or use key, and the story responded.

These games:

• Require no graphics (perfect for beginners)

• Let you focus on coding logic and structure

• Encourage creativity and problem-solving

• Help students build confidence in Python

Bonus: they’re wildly nostalgic for teachers and surprisingly addictive for students.

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🧱 Building the Game – Step by Step

Here’s how we structure the project during tuition or workshops:

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🔹 1. Map Your World

Start with a map. Your game needs rooms, paths, and descriptions. Whether it’s a haunted mansion, a space station, or a tropical island, draw it out first.

Example:

• Bedroom → Hallway → Library → Secret Passage → Dragon’s Lair

Teach students how to:

• Create a dictionary of rooms

• Link rooms via directions (north, east, etc.)

python
rooms = {
    'bedroom': {'desc': 'You are in a cosy bedroom.', 'east': 'hallway'},
    'hallway': {'desc': 'A long corridor with paintings.', 'west': 'bedroom', 'south': 'library'}
}

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🔹 2. Add Movement Commands

Handle user input with simple logic:

python
command = input("> ").lower()
if command == "go east":
    current_room = rooms[current_room]['east']

Students learn:

• Input handling

• If/else control structures

• String parsing

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🔹 3. Add Objects and Inventory

Let players pick up items and solve puzzles:

• Create lists for inventory

• Add item interactions: keys that unlock doors, books with clues, potions that change things

python
inventory = []
items = {'library': 'ancient book'}

if command == "take book":
    inventory.append('ancient book')
    items['library'] = None

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🔹 4. Add Conditions, Scores, and Endings

Make the game dynamic:

• Use flags to track progress

• Add a scoring system

• Include multiple endings based on choices

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🔹 5. Add a Dash of Humour

Encourage students to write fun, engaging descriptions. The creativity shines here – even those less confident with code can shine as storytellers.

“You step into the library. A dusty parrot eyes you suspiciously from the chandelier.”

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🧪 The Learning Outcomes

This one project covers:

• Data structures: dictionaries, lists

• Control structures: if, while, loops

• Functions and modular coding

• Debugging and testing

• User interface design

• Creative writing and narrative design

Perfect for KS3 Computing, GCSE Computer Science, and even as a Year 12 refresher.

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🧰 Going Further: Add Graphics and Sound

Once the text game is solid, we often challenge students to:

• Add sound effects using pygame

• Display images or maps

• Convert to a clickable game with tkinter or a GUI

Our studio can even help students record voiceovers, soundtracks, and turn it into a playable web game — gaming meets filmmaking!

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🎓 What We Offer

At Philip M Russell Ltd, we teach computing by making it real, engaging, and fun. From Python to Raspberry Pi to building your own PC, our lessons go beyond the curriculum.

Learn to code. Build a game. Tell a story.
One-to-one tuition in our classroom, studio or online.

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📅 Sign up for GCSE/A-Level Computer Science tuition today
🔗 www.philipmrussell.co.uk
🎮 Because every coder starts with a game.

Here's a simple but expandable Python word parser that can be used for a text-based adventure game. This parser interprets the player's input like go north, take key, or look room and splits it into verb and noun (or direction/object). It’s the basis of how your game understands commands.

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🧩 Basic Word Parser in Python

python
def parse_command(command):
    """
    Parses the user's input into a verb and noun.
    Returns a tuple: (verb, noun)
    """
    command = command.lower().strip()  # Make lowercase and remove whitespace
    words = command.split()

    if len(words) == 0:
        return ("", "")  # Empty command
    elif len(words) == 1:
        return (words[0], "")  # e.g., "inventory"
    else:
        return (words[0], " ".join(words[1:]))  # e.g., "take golden key"

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💡 How to Use It in the Game

Here’s an example of how this fits into the game loop:

python
while True:
    command = input("> ")
    verb, noun = parse_command(command)

    if verb == "go":
        if noun in rooms[current_room]:
            current_room = rooms[current_room][noun]
            print(f"You move {noun} to the {current_room}.")
        else:
            print("You can't go that way.")
    
    elif verb == "look":
        print(rooms[current_room]['desc'])
    
    elif verb == "take":
        if noun == items.get(current_room):
            inventory.append(noun)
            items[current_room] = None
            print(f"You picked up the {noun}.")
        else:
            print(f"There is no {noun} here.")
    
    elif verb == "inventory":
        print("You are carrying:", ", ".join(inventory) or "nothing.")
    
    elif verb in ("quit", "exit"):
        print("Goodbye adventurer.")
        break
    
    else:
        print("I don't understand that command.")

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🧪 Example Use

markdown
> go north
> take lantern
> inventory
> look
> quit

The parse_command() function turns those into:

python
("go", "north")
("take", "lantern")
("inventory", "")
("look", "")
("quit", "")

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🧠 Extensions You Can Add Later

• Support for synonyms (e.g., “grab” = “take”, “exit” = “go out”)

• Better error handling ("go tree" could say "that's not a valid direction")

• Two-word verb support (e.g., "turn on torch")

• Tokenisation to allow commands like "take the golden key"

Day 5 – Crystals in the Kitchen

 

Day 5 – Crystals in the Kitchen

Blog Title: The Crystal World – From Sugar to Salt Under the Microscope

Take a peek at:

• Salt crystals (table salt vs rock salt)

• Sugar (white, brown, icing)

• Epsom salts or citric acid (used in bath bombs)

• Coffee, cocoa, or spices

Bonus: Dissolve and recrystallise sugar or salt and examine the new shapes.

🧂 Biology Blog – The Magic of Microscopes

Day 5: The Crystal World – From Sugar to Salt Under the Microscope

Crystals are all around us—in the kitchen, in our food, even in the bath. But most of the time, we don’t even notice them. Today, we’re zooming in on everyday crystals like sugar and salt to reveal their dazzling geometric beauty.

You don’t need a lab or fancy equipment—just your microscope, a bright light, and a few kitchen staples. Time to discover the hidden order of the crystal world.

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🔍 What You’ll Need

• A low-power or digital microscope

• A slide and coverslip (or a clear tray)

• A selection of crystals:

  • Table salt (sodium chloride)

  • Rock salt

  • Granulated sugar

  • Brown sugar

  • Icing sugar

  • Epsom salts or citric acid (optional)

Tip: For best results, examine both dry and dissolved/recrystallised versions.

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🧊 What Are Crystals, Anyway?

Crystals are solids with a regular, repeating internal structure. This means atoms and molecules are arranged in a precise, orderly pattern—something you can often see under a microscope.

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🔬 What to Look For

🧂 Table Salt

• Sharp, cube-shaped crystals

• Often stacked together or appearing like tiny dice

• Under light, they reflect in sharp, bright glints

🍚 Granulated Sugar

• More irregular shapes, but still angular

• Larger and more transparent than salt

• Sparkle under directional light

🍯 Brown Sugar

• Coated in molasses, so often appears clumped or duller

• Crystals still visible, though more rounded

• Interesting texture contrast compared to white sugar

❄️ Icing Sugar

• Finely ground—looks almost dust-like

• Under magnification, you’ll see tiny fractured shapes

• A good comparison for understanding scale

🛁 Epsom Salts

• Often needle-like or shard-shaped

• Different structure than salt or sugar—more elongated

• Used in bath bombs and science demos

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🧪 Make Your Own Crystals

Try this experiment:

1. Dissolve salt or sugar in warm water until saturated.

2. Leave the solution in a shallow dish to evaporate over a few days.

3. Examine the new crystals you’ve grown under the microscope.
   You’ll see larger, cleaner crystals with beautiful symmetry.

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📸 Photo Tips

• Place dry crystals on black card under a clear slide

• Use side lighting to highlight edges

• Try polarised filters for dramatic colour effects (especially with Epsom salts)

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👨‍🔬 Microscope Log Challenge

Create a comparison table:

Crystal Type	Shape	Colour	Transparency	Notes
Table Salt	Cube	White	Opaque	Very regular
Sugar	Irregular	Clearish	Translucent	Bigger crystals
Epsom Salt	Needle	White	Opaque	Long and jagged

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🧵 Tweet Teaser

Kitchen chemistry under the microscope? Yes please! 🧂🔍
From cube-like salt to sparkling sugar and needle-like Epsom crystals, it’s a mini world of geometry and glitter. #MicroscopeMadness #CrystalsUpClose

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Crystals combine chemistry and beauty in the best way. Tomorrow we’re getting a little hairier—Hair, Fur and Fibres awaits!

Ice Cream Chemistry

 The real reason ice cream is soft? Chemistry is chilling out.

🍦 Ice Cream Chemistry – Emulsions, Freezing Points, and Flavour Science

Summer is the season of sunshine, swimming pools… and ice cream. But while most people are busy enjoying the sweet, creamy results, we’re digging into what’s really going on inside that cone.

Because behind every scoop of vanilla or swirl of raspberry ripple is a mouthful of chemistry — and a surprisingly complex one at that.

Let’s unravel the science behind the treat we all scream for.

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🧪 1. Emulsions – Oil and Water Can Mix (Sort Of)

Ice cream is a colloidal emulsion, a mixture of fat droplets (from cream or milk) suspended in water (mostly from milk, plus added water and sugar). Normally, oil and water don’t mix — but ice cream is a marvel of modern emulsion engineering.

What holds it all together?

• Emulsifiers like lecithin (from egg yolks) or mono- and diglycerides break down surface tension and help fat and water combine

• Stabilisers like guar gum or carrageenan keep the emulsion stable and stop ice crystals forming too quickly

Without emulsifiers, you’d get a grainy, separated mess. With them, you get that smooth, creamy texture we love.

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❄️ 2. Freezing Point Depression – Sugar is More Than Sweet

When you add sugar to a liquid, it lowers its freezing point. That’s why ice cream doesn’t freeze solid like an ice cube — even in a very cold freezer.

This is thanks to colligative properties — the more solute particles (sugar, salt, etc.) in a solution, the lower the freezing point.

🍧 That’s also why salt is spread on icy roads — it melts ice by lowering the freezing point of water.

In ice cream:

• Lower freezing point = softer texture

• Balancing sugar is key — too much and the mix won’t freeze properly

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🫧 3. Microbubbles – Why Air Makes It Creamy

You might be surprised to learn that ice cream contains a lot of air – typically between 30–50% of its volume. This air is whipped in during churning and stabilised by fats and proteins.

The air:

• Increases volume (known as overrun)

• Improves texture

• Prevents the ice cream from becoming too dense

Too little air and your ice cream is rock-solid.
Too much air and it tastes like frozen foam.
The sweet spot is where chemistry and food science align.

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🌈 4. Flavour Chemistry – The Science of Sweet Satisfaction

Flavour perception isn’t just about taste — it’s also about temperature, texture, and volatile compounds that release as ice cream melts.

Some fun facts:

• Vanillin (from vanilla) is one of the most studied flavour compounds

• Menthol gives mint that cool sensation — it triggers cold receptors in your mouth

• Fruit flavours often come from esters, which are volatile and aromatic (e.g., ethyl butanoate = pineapple scent)

And why does melted ice cream taste sweeter? Because warmer temperatures release more aroma molecules and stimulate your sweet receptors more.

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🧫 5. The Crystal Battle – Keeping It Smooth

Ice crystals are the enemy of smooth ice cream. If the freezing process is too slow, large crystals form, leading to a crunchy or icy texture.

Chemists and food scientists use:

• Rapid freezing (liquid nitrogen or industrial blast freezing)

• Emulsifiers and stabilisers to keep small crystals small

• Controlled temperature storage to prevent re-freezing cycles

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🧠 Classroom to Cone – Why This Matters

For GCSE and A-Level Chemistry students, ice cream offers a delicious entry point into:

• Colloids and emulsions

• Freezing point depression

• Mixtures and solubility

• Phase changes and states of matter

• Molecular gastronomy!

You can even design your own classroom investigation:

How does changing sugar concentration affect the freezing point and texture of ice cream?

Or try:

Does the type of emulsifier change how smooth the ice cream feels?

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🎓 Where We Take It Further

At Philip M Russell Ltd, we don’t just teach chemistry – we demonstrate it in delicious, memorable ways. Whether it’s analysing molecular structures or churning our own ice cream in a lesson (yes, we’ve done it!), science comes to life.

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🍨 Want to make chemistry more engaging?
Book 1:1 GCSE and A-Level lessons with us in our lab, classroom or online studio.

📅 Now enrolling for September
🔗 www.philipmrussell.co.uk

Day 4 – Feathered Friends: A Close Look at Feathers

 

Day 4 – Feathered Friends: A Close Look at Feathers

Blog Title: Birds of a Feather – But Have You Ever Really Looked?

If you find a feather in the garden or park (or have one from a pet bird), examine:

• The interlocking barbs and barbules

• Pigment patterns

• Fluff vs flight feather structure

• Damage from parasites

Bonus: Try to guess the bird type from feather structure and colour.

Day 4: Birds of a Feather – But Have You Ever Really Looked?

We see feathers everywhere—drifting on the wind, stuck to a garden fence, or ruffled in a nest. But beneath the fluff and colour is a structure so delicate and sophisticated it puts most human engineering to shame. Today, we’re going beyond birdwatching and into the microscopic world of feathers.

Because yes—birds of a feather really do flock together, but have you ever really looked at those feathers up close?

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🔍 Getting Started: What You’ll Need

• A low-power microscope or digital microscope

• A few found feathers (from the park, garden, or clean pet birds)

• Optional: a slide or clear tray for placing feathers flat

Tip: Avoid damaged or dirty feathers. Wash hands after handling.

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🧬 What to Look For: The Parts of a Feather

Under the microscope, feathers reveal an incredible design:

🪶 Barbs and Barbules

• The barbs are the long strands that run from the central shaft.

• Each barb has barbules, tiny hook-like filaments that zip together, giving feathers their shape and strength.

• You can actually see these interlocking hooks if you zoom in enough!

Fun Experiment: Gently separate a feather’s barbs, then smooth them back together with your fingers. That’s the barbules reattaching!

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🌬️ Down Feathers vs Flight Feathers

• Down feathers are soft and fluffy—perfect for insulation. Under the microscope, they look like tangled threads with no organised structure.

• Flight feathers (from wings or tail) are stiffer and more orderly, with clear rows of barbs and barbules—like the teeth of a comb.

• Contour feathers (body feathers) are somewhere in between.

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🐦 What Feathers Can Tell You

• Colour & Pigment: Melanin makes blacks and browns. Other pigments make yellows, reds, or iridescence.

• Function: A waterproof duck feather looks very different from a fluffy owl feather.

• Species Clues: Shape, colour, and texture can hint at which bird it came from.

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🔎 Microscope Safari Challenge

Try comparing:

• A pigeon feather vs a seagull feather

• Pet budgie vs garden blackbird

• Down feather vs tail feather

• Feathers from the leading edge (short and stiff) vs the trailing edge (long and flexible)

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📸 Top Tip: Photograph the Patterns

Use your mobile phone to capture what you see—some feathers show micro-patterns or UV reflectivity only visible close up.

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🧵 Tweet Teaser

Birds of a feather might flock together—but up close, their feathers are engineering marvels. 🪶
Barbs, barbules, pigment, and fluff—zoom in and see the invisible magic! #BiologyBlog #MicroscopeMadness #FeatherFacts

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Feathers aren’t just for flying—they tell a story of warmth, camouflage, beauty, and biology. Tomorrow, we swap feathers for something a little sweeter: crystals in the kitchen!

How hot is the soil vs the air?

 

How hot is the soil vs the air? Time to take the @pascoscientific wireless temperature sensors for a summer stroll. 

🌱 Taking Science Outside – Using PASCO Wireless Temp Sensors in the Garden

When the classroom empties out for summer, the learning doesn’t have to stop — especially when you’ve got a garden, a question, and a set of PASCO wireless temperature sensors.

This week, we’re asking a deceptively simple question:

How hot is the soil compared to the air?
And more importantly: why?

Armed with our wireless temperature sensors, a bit of curiosity, and a sunny afternoon, we set out to explore what’s really going on under your feet and around your flowers.

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🌡️ The Tools: PASCO Wireless Temperature Sensors

We used PASCO’s wireless temp sensors because:

• They're robust and waterproof

• They record and transmit data directly to a phone, tablet, or laptop

• They log data over time — perfect for tracking changes during the day

• And crucially, they're fun and quick to use outdoors

With these, we can easily measure:

• Ambient air temperature

• Soil surface temperature

• Sub-surface (5cm or 10cm deep) soil temperatures

• Shaded vs sunny areas

• Temperature changes throughout the day

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🧪 The Experiment Setup

Location: My garden – part shaded by trees, part in direct sun.
Time: 10am to 6pm
Sensors:

• One sensor suspended 1 metre above the soil (air temp)

• One sensor placed on the surface of bare soil

• One sensor buried 10cm deep

• One additional pair in shaded areas for comparison

Data was logged every minute.

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📊 The Results: Surprising Differences

By early afternoon, we found:

Sensor Location	Temp (°C)
Air (1m above ground)	27.4°C
Soil Surface (in sun)	38.9°C
Soil Surface (in shade)	25.2°C
Soil @ 10cm deep	23.1°C

Key observations:

• Soil heats up significantly more than the air above it when in full sun.

• Shaded soil stays much cooler.

• Sub-surface soil temperatures are far more stable — barely changing across the day.

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🌤️ Why Does Soil Get Hotter Than Air?

Soil and air heat up in different ways:

• Air warms gradually as the sun heats the ground, which then radiates heat into the air.

• Soil absorbs the sun’s energy directly — especially if it's dark and dry — making it much hotter at the surface.

It’s all about:

• Thermal conductivity

• Surface albedo (how much sunlight is reflected vs absorbed)

• Moisture content (wet soil heats more slowly)

• Insulation (soil below the surface is protected from solar radiation)

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🌡️ Why This Experiment Matters

This simple garden investigation:

• Demonstrates how heat transfers and how materials absorb energy

• Reinforces ideas around specific heat capacity, energy flow, and climate science

• Is relevant to real-world issues like urban heat islands, green roof design, and agriculture

• Provides perfect data sets for GCSE and A-Level Science and Maths analysis

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🧠 Get Students to Investigate Themselves

Great questions to ask:

• How does soil temperature vary between grass, gravel, and concrete?

• What happens if you water the soil before testing?

• What’s the temperature difference between topsoil and compost?

• Can you model how long it takes for different materials to cool?

Extension for Physics/Maths:
Plot cooling curves or create linear/regression models from the data.

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🧪 Teaching Science Year-Round – Even in the Garden

At Philip M Russell Ltd, we use PASCO scientific sensors throughout the year. Whether in the classroom or outdoors, they help students see science in action, collect real data, and develop critical thinking.

Whether you’re learning about thermodynamics, climate change, or just curious about why your cat prefers the shaded soil — this is science you can do anywhere.

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🌿 Want to learn more with us?
We offer 1:1 Science tuition (GCSE & A-Level), and all lessons include hands-on investigation and data analysis — even online via our film studio.

📅 Now enrolling for September
🔗 www.philipmrussell.co.uk