Overview:  In this launch the teacher asks students about their experiences playing very old video games compared to playing much newer video games.  A few students in the class have seen very old video games, and the teacher asks students what they have noticed about these games.  Students respond that the games are not very good, and the teacher pushes students to be more specific about the visual effects of the games.  The teacher compares old racing games, where the player could only view the car from the side or top, to current racing games where the player has the view of the driver of a car.  The teacher tells students that something called “perspective” is what allowed game designers to begin making more sophisticated 3D video games.  The teacher says that students will imagine themselves in the role of someone designing a 3D graphic.

Prior knowledge:  The teacher here attempts to establish a connection with the mathematical practice of creating 3D graphics.  Although creating 3D graphics would require many different practices, the teacher specifically focuses with students on the issues of perspective and the differences between graphics that look “flat” and graphics that display 3 dimensions.  The teacher seems to want to illustrate for students one of the ways in which knowledge of perspective has utility beyond school mathematics.

Other points of interest:  The teacher seems to want to use 3D video game graphics as a “hook” for students to become engaged with a problem about perspective drawing.  The teacher’s launch could be misleading for students, because the practices for creating 3D graphics in video games are generally different from the practices for making a 1-point perspective drawing, although they may rely on the same principles.  The teacher’s comment that perspective “is what allowed us to start making games that weren’t just flat” is somewhat misleading, because graphic artists had knowledge of perspective drawing long before they had developed technology to create 3D video games.  The teacher seems to simplify the issue of 3D video game graphics in order to help students see the connection with the problem they will work on in class.