Daily Creates: May 11th – May 17th
#tdc5147: Find some words on an infinite word search
For my daily create today I decided to look for a few words in this infinite word search. I tried to stay relatively centralized, in an area that others had worked and found it to be a lot more difficult than I was expecting!
At first, the only words that I could find in the condensed areas were 4 or 3 letters long. I found a few words such as tent and sire, as well as a few 3 letter words. Once I went out to less condensed areas I could find longer words like gloat and share much more easily. I think that this activity relates to Mayer’s Cognitive Load Theory to reduce intrinsic cognitive load. At first, the infinite word search can become overwhelming, so by using the segmenting principle and focusing on a single section of the wordsearch it becomes a lot easier to find words.
#tdc5119: Write a haiku about your favourite book
Currently my favourite book is Project Hail Mary, which I read for the first time last year. I really enjoyed the problem solving that happens throughout the book, as well as the main characters’ relationship with one another.
Sent on a mission
Learned all about astrophage
Grace made a new friend
I found this to be harder than I was expecting. This activity involved active processing, as I had a clear idea of what topics I wanted to present in the haiku, but needed to iterate on my text to ensure that it fit the correct format and still made sense.
#tdc5239: What’s the last book you read?
The last book that I read was the Strength of the Few, written by James Islington. This prompt mentions that I should share it to tempt others to dive in and read it as well.
I will keep the summary non-descript, as most of its contents are spoilers from the first book. The strength of the few is the second book of the Hierarchy series, and has a similar setting to the ancient Romans. In this society, individuals are able to cede their willpower to others, creating a political and physical hierarchy within. This book revolves around the protagonist Vis, who is not particularly fond of this political atmosphere, as he works his ways up the ranks in order to figure out how to take it down. I think this book would suit any fantasy readers who enjoy magic and characters working on tasks in secret. As for the first book, if you ever read and enjoyed Red Rising, I found it to be similar.
This activity definitely required Mayer’s Coherence Principle, as I needed to focus on the main points of the book and exclude unnecessary information. This book can get fairly complicated since it is the second in the series, so I had to make sure I followed the Cognitive Load Theory as to not overwhelm readers.