Scratch

Welcome to the site!  Are you doing Scratch in a particular context?  Where you go depends on what you want out of it.   Some random ideas for middle school kids:

Look at the page of programming concepts posted at http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=789.   Each day ask the kids to make a project that demonstrates a couple of the concepts, their subject choice, until they know what all of them mean.

Make a game or simulation that supports a concept from another subject area. See this project gallery for ideas:
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/11876

Show the student how to import a piece of music, then have them create an animation that puts a visual to it, like this one http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/keithbraafladt/156

Make a public service announcement.

Have the kids do a portait of themselves, their interests, introducing themselves through Scratch.

Research a couple quick facts on a topic of interest, then create a character in Scratch that teaches the facts to the user.

Use the drawing pen to explore geometry concepts.

Does this help?  If not, keep asking.  Have fun, and let us know what you do.

Karen

Hi

Thanks all, your suggestions are very helpful indeed. I used the programming concepts http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=789 today to develop an understanding of sequence, loops/iterations, conditional statements.  It was very useful to show simple progression and at the same time explain basic concepts, later learning more on the numbers to.

I will hope to build from here towards projects and then offer feedback on how things go.

Thanks!

A.

adrianmhodge wrote:

Hi all

I'm Adrian, I'm new to the forum, I work in a boys high school here in Thailand. I'm looking to create a Scratch project for around 12-14yrs group.

I've already introduced Scratch, used some basics, allowed them to copy a tutorial to make 'Pong'.

Has anybody got ideas or a resource which can help me plan a 2-3 week project? Such as giving an intended outcome or other guideline that the students can use as a starting point to build their own project?

I see the need to allow flexibility while also wishing to guide the students to use certain techniques for a desired result. I could of course also let them loose to make anything, however grading becomes difficult then perhaps..

Any ideas greatly appreciated! :-)

Adrian

Well I think it would be quite fun to make an interactive project, such as pressing keys to make different things happen. Or you ould also make a project using sensing blocks. Hope this helps 

If you are interested in some example of book report projects to show your students, check out

http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/9706

I do a monthly book project assignment as homework and after the kids show me that they can do a written version proficiently, they have other options like a Scratch project.  The nice thing about having them do it at home and post it is that they willingly put in much more time than I can give them in school.  Posting it to the web makes sharing easy. 

It would be great to have other book-related projects to the gallery if you go with the idea. 

Karen R.

Good luck with the presentation and let us know how it goes.  Do you have a stand alone class where you get to set curriculum?  Even if the other teachers don't necessarily bite, connecting to what they do, which it sounds like you do, must be appreciated.

Karen R.

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