Scratch challenges

One of the things I have to do is to develop some more resources for scratch, I plan on using this with my junior classes

The way I have introduced scratch this year to students (years 10 and 11 in my case, but it might work with younger students as well) has been to:

• first ask them to complete the scratch cards provided at the Scratch MIT site
• then to complete the following challenges

SCRATCH CHALLENGES

1) Make 2 different balls move around on the stage
a) the first ball moves in straight lines but bounces randomly whenever it hits the edge
b) the second moves randomly, changing direction all the time

2a) One sprite chases another sprite around the stage. The first sprite moves in straight line but bounces off the edge randomly. The chasing sprite chases the first sprite but is moving slower.
b) Extension – if the chasing sprite catches the other sprite then it says something sensible and makes a suitable sound

3) Use the Letter shapes to write your first name on the page. Then introduce some special effects such as making the letters wobble and change their appearance.

4) Point, click and move
Make an object both point and glide towards the mouse position when you click on the stage
Hint: Motion > point towards
Hint: Sensing > mouse down?

5) Make two animals have a forwards and backwards conversation
Hint: Use broadcast

6a) Play all the different drum sounds automatically
Hint: create a variable for the drum number
b) Extension – keep recycling through all the drum sounds automatically

7) Make Dan or Anjuli or Cassy dance to a beat, using all of their dance shapes

8) Make a sprite gradually grow in size and then shrink
Hint: make a size variable

9) Count down on a timer. A rocket takes off when you reach zero
Hint: Use the number icons in the letters folder

10) Add, multiply or subtract two variable numbers
Hint: Just to do addition only you will need 4 variables: firstNum, secondNum, answer (computer calculated) and myAnswer (human calculated)


In thinking about how to optimise, improve and extend this whole process I re-read some of my earlier posts about Scratch. This one is important in thinking about what the teacher ought to be doing beyond building skills:

playing with the kindergarten metaphor

imagine -> create -> play -> share -> reflect and then iterate again ...

Learning to share is harder than learning to ride a bicycle or write a computer program - but more important ...

Minsky quote: Logo has a great grammar but not much literature

It's important to explicitly promote reflection

I also expect that I will be using the excellent project ideas developed by a Mr. Michaud at Nebo Elementary School as a next step in a progression.

An interesting site

As I surf the internet I come across some interesting sites,

http://www.kerpoof.com/

Kerpoof allows you to easily create pictures, stories, and animated movies. Pictures can be created by first selecting a scene from a variety of different back-drops, and then dragging and dropping objects (thousands of which are available) onto the 3D scene. Stories can be created by linking multiple scenes together and adding text.

Kerpoof also allows animated movies to be created with an intuitive interface. The animation interface has been designed to introduce basic concepts to children in a fun context. Kerpoof makes it very easy to get started but still provides flexibility and control. A rich character library is provided, with each character having numerous, built-in animated actions, many of them humorous. By mixing and matching the built-in animations with custom scripts and dialog, elaborate animated movies are easily created. More advanced capabilities allow children to turn their movies into interactive stories or adventure-style games.

Kerpoof provides various sharing mechanisms to allow users to publish and share their creations and to collaborate with other users on joint efforts.

Year 9 ICT Course

We are looking at changing our year 9 mostly IM orientated course to a more ICT based course, so I am looking at what other school have in place to help facilitate the change to our programme

Rangiora High School have a wonderful programme, Promoting ones self, I like the idea of a theme for the terms work
http://www.rangiorahigh.school.nz/Intranet/Departments/Technology/ICT/Year%209%20Promoting%20Me%20Through%20ICT/Y9_Promoting_Me_Through_ICT.htm
One of the applications that they use is anim8or a free 3d animation solution, there are a number of tutorials on the site that can help with that hard part of getting started.
Also the use of Microsoft Photo Story, this is a wonderful application, getting students involved with digital camera and creation, sounds like something different than using word and publisher.

Also this from Geraldine High School
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2 periods per week for 1 term

In addition to improving keyboard skills, the students apply the technology process to an ICT environment. They learn to use a database and movie programme, and then design one of each for a given situation. This requires them to research the requirements, design a database and movie to meet the identified specifications, create and improve upon their designs and finally evaluate the finished product. This sets the groundwork for the technology section of the Year 10 and Year 11 Information Management course.

One of the other things that we are looking at is the way evaluation sheets should be included in the curriculum. A example is here
http://www.dida-delivered.org/delivered/d203/1.1/1.1.8.pdf this is one for a graphic product, look at visual style and visual elements.

Also a excel sheet looking at multimedia, integrating excel use into the course http://www.dida-delivered.org/delivered/d202/1.1/evaluation_%20sheet_%20d202_%20section_1.1.xls