Scratch

Will there be any chance for them to do additional work outside of the actual class?  Not scratching, but prep work such as writing a short script for a cartoon?

Is there any other subject they are working on that this could be tied into, or should it be a stand alone project?

I'd start, then, by demoing a couple of basic projects, and perhaps one or two that are not so basic, so that the class gets an inkling of what is possible.  Then move onto strictly mechanical stuff - creating new projects and getting sprites/backgrounds from the gallery.

Then I'd introduce the "Scratch cards" that can be printed from this site.  the next part of your first lesson can be based around passing these around the class, trying out the technique on the card, then swapping with somebody to get a new card.  That way, your students will get an idea of what is possible and how simple it is.  Then, even if they cannot remember how to do something, they know the card is available to help them when they come to write their own program.

You can end the lesson with a brainstorming session - could we make a game with the techniques?  What sort of game? 

Second lesson - concentrate on animation and special effects.  Demonstrate one of the "name" projects.  Get the students to create an animation of their name where each letter does somthing different, either when clicked or when that letter is pressed on the keyboard.  Encourage them to explore the different visual effects - colour, mosiac, whirl etc, as well as different movements - rotation or bouncing around the screen.  Definately show them the "size" command so that they can re-size sprites - this might be important next lesson.

Then, 3rd lesson, creating a game or interactive animation.  I would be very specific at this point or you will lose a lot of time in dithering. 

Show the children a simple game with a maze that needs to be navigated with the mouse or the keyboard to reach a finish point in the middle.  Introduce them to the combination of scripts that send you to the start if touching the wall, and detect if you have won or not.

"If touching colour (x) goto (x) (y)" where X and Y gives the start position.
"If touching sprite (z) Say "You Win" stop all."

Challenge them to make their own game of this type, using whatever sprites they wish, and drawing their own maze.  Can they add special effects for winning and losing?  Can they add a time limit?  They might need to re-size the sprites they choose in order to make them small enough to suit the game, but you have already taught them how!

The next step, if time, might be to add a monster that patrols a given part of the maze.  Advanced students could think about how to make the monster move towards the player-sprite...

Last edited by Mayhem (2008-05-28 04:29:52)

As a follow-up to this...

The 4th day of this camp is usually a Science Olympics. Students are divided into teams to do a variety of science activities for points, etc. The usually have about half an hour or so for each event. I was thinking about some type of problem/puzzle for them to do in Scratch, for them to show what they could do after just three sessions with it.

Does anyone have any idea for problems that 5th/6th graders would be able to complete in a short time like that? I'd need an easy set of rubrics to use.

Thanks,

Howard

BTW, I just saw rivendell's posting on Mini-projects. I suspect some of those would make good candidates. Any other ideas?

HowardF64 wrote:

As a follow-up to this...

The 4th day of this camp is usually a Science Olympics. Students are divided into teams to do a variety of science activities for points, etc. The usually have about half an hour or so for each event. I was thinking about some type of problem/puzzle for them to do in Scratch, for them to show what they could do after just three sessions with it.

Does anyone have any idea for problems that 5th/6th graders would be able to complete in a short time like that? I'd need an easy set of rubrics to use.

Thanks,

Howard

BTW, I just saw rivendell's posting on Mini-projects. I suspect some of those would make good candidates. Any other ideas?

How about a paint/draw project?  This would only work if you have covered use of the Pen and/or Stamp blocks.  You can make a small paint project simply by having a sprite follow the mouse with the pen down.  There are lots of additional options that could be added:  color selection, eraser, backgrounds, pen size, pen up/down control, etc.  So most participants should be able to get something functional up and running in the time frame and it would be pretty easy to come up with a rubric based on additional features added.