Scratch Workshop - Oct 11, 2013

This 90 minute hands-on workshop is being held at 
Bliss Carmen Middle School for ASD-W teachers.

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Presenter: Graham Rich

About Graham

Contact Graham

Agenda for Today's Workshop

In this workshop, I'm going to dive into my video series to make a Frogger video game.  

FYI: My students complete the Frogger game in about a week and then choose their final project: PacMan, Space Shooter or a Dress Up Game.

Introduction to Coding

Click for Code.org

Check out these great videos promoting coding with young people!

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Click for Pluralsight for Kids

There are lots of different coding tools that teachers can use:

• Scratch (new version is very versatile)
• Python (makes web sites & 'real' programs - free)
• App Inventor (makes simple Android Apps - free)
• Lego NXT / Mindstorms (included with lego kit)
  
• C#, Visual Basic (Microsoft products)
• Java 
• HTML, CSS, Javascript (often inaccurately called "HTML5")
• Ruby, Rails (web)
• MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MS Access (databases)

What can I do with coding?

Scratch can be used for:

• games
• presentations
• demonstrations (math, science)
• non-linear stories
• Lego WeDo & Microsoft Kinect

See "Some Scratch Projects" in the right sidebar.

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Python scripts can be written for:

• regular windows program (e.g. calculator)
• electronics (using Raspberry Pi)
• web (Used in Pintrest.  Similar to PHP or Ruby.)
• 3D animation (using Blender)
• GIS (supported by ESRI's ArcGIS)

And Python is very easy to install and start right away!

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Assessment Suggestions

For my Scratch unit, I assess the following:

• Introduction Activities (0% or 100% per activity)
• Frogger Game - Videos (0% or 100% per video)
• Frogger Game - Creativity (sliding scale)
• Final Project - see final project page
• Quiz (2013 - online multi-choice using Canvas)  PDF doc
• Quiz (2011 - hands-on coding activities)  web link

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Diving into Scratch (...finally!)

Below are a few videos to get you started before joining the Frogger activities.

Option #1

Scratch 2.0
-Basic Intro
-Cat goto Mouse
-Cat follow Mouse

Option #2

Scratch 2.0
-Basic Intro
-Keep Away Game

Option #3

Scratch 1.4
-On Edge, Bounce
-Alter a Photo
-Fence Detect

• Scratch 2.0 - Starting a Frogger Video Game - Keyboard Input (part 1) 
  
  
• Scratch 2.0 - Starting a Frogger Video Game - Keyboard Input (part 2) 
  
  
• Now you're ready to continue with the regular Frogger programming here.
  (Remember: these videos were made using Scratch 1.4.)

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Term: "Coding"

For our discussion today,
these terms are equivalent:

• coding
• programming
• software programming
• software development
• software engineering

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For another day...
   ... real world Python

Raspberry Pi
(article in the Guardian UK)

Blender - 3D Animation
Samples: Big Buck Bunny
or 2013 Blender Demo

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Some Scratch Projects

Games (from my students)

• Visit my students' studio

Math

• Area - George Pick's formula (Teorema de Pick - v2)
• Polar Coordinates
• Sine Wave
• Trig Functions
• Graph: Quadratic Function

Science

• Bouncing Ball (by Graham)
  
• HydroPower
• Electricity Inside Us (for a science fair project)
• Science Quiz (made by a Scout, for a badge)

English Language Arts

• Choose Your Own Adventure (made by Graham)

Spelling

• Spelling Sample (made by Graham)

Other

• Interactive School Map
• Magnetz - The Game
• Pong - 2 Player (made by Graham)
• Scratch & Kinect

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Where do I find more?

The Scratch web site is a great place to start.

The community of Scratch programmers is large and includes both young and old.  Everyone loves to share their projects!

What if I'm bored?

Try any of the resources above.

Still bored?  Go here and try one: 
http://kidscodingcanada.ca/teaching-tools/
(Have your own coding resources?  
  Why not add them in the comments...
  ... or send them to me in the Contact form!)