addlib - word stories for unreasonable math?
(you replace with your title)

addlib is a game where kids "ad lib" the creation of an arithmetic word problem. Each round creates a random storyline with random numbers. The intended audience is a 7-10 year old reader. This age group is just beginning to learn to read as well as understand fundamental expressions that describe the relationships between objects. The types of storylines are constrained by mathematical phrases that express relationships between sets of objects, such as:

more than
fewer than
less than
altogether
action verbs, e.g., those describing changes in ownership ("gave")

Sample play: User fills in some text fields on a form. An arithmetic (addition and subtraction only) word problem appears in a new window. From the software engineering perspective, the storyline in the problem was selected from one of many possible storylines (e.g., a random number of 7 might mean use the teddy bear story, a random number of 1 means the volleyball game story). There is no right or wrong answer on each story. Because the storyline (and values used in the problem!) are randomly assigned, it is very possible to generate a story that does not make sense. Those type of problems may add to the humor? At the very least, it requires children to recognize, ponder and discuss why the situation as described in English (in this case) may be mathematically unreasonable.

For example:

Dave owns 3 jeeps.
He crashed and lost 7 of them.
How many jeeps does he have now?

The numbers 3 and then 7 were generated randomly. The "jeep" storyline is a template which replaces the ? with the random numbers:

TEMPLATE:
Dave owns ? jeeps.
He lost ? of them.
How many jeeps does he have now?

Notice that the terms lost and of them (in italics) dictate the type of action (in this case, losing) that takes place. More abstractly, someone owning a number of things then losing some of them establishes a natural "take away" or subtraction situation. (There is much theory in the last statement; we will discuss together).

Here is the created story from another round; is this a "reasonable addlib?"

Nathan has 6 fewer ostrich eggs than Josh.
Josh has 5 ostrich eggs.
How many ostrich eggs does Nathan have?

Well, maybe he dropped one?

Requirements:

• At least five randomly generated storylines.
• Each problem contains two randomly generated numbers from 0 to 9.

• a variable to hold the count of the total number of story's created.
• a variable to hold the count of the number of each particular storyline
  (e.g., bearCounter could be a variable to hold the running tally of the number of bear stories).

• An opening page FORM with at least five text fields (e.g., two fields for names)
• The opening page should have a CREATE STORY button.
• The opening page should have a STATS button.
• The STATS button should open a new window and display the following information:

  The percentage and number of times each storyline was used, e.g.,

  Teddy Bear story used 4 times out of a total of 10 stories or 40% of the time.
  Jeep story used 1 time out of a total of 10 stories or 10% of the time.
  :
  :
  

Software Engineering Tip: software engineers historically and continually underestimate the time it will take to implement a working prototype. (Huh? what's he talking about). Said differently, no, lemme ask a question: How many hours will it take you to complete this project, including the time from design to testing/playing? 5 hours? 10 hours? (now read the Tip again). Nuff said? Ready, ..., go. Be wise -- plan out the next 10 days.