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#1 2007-07-04 00:05:01

natalie
Scratch Team
Registered: 2007-03-07
Posts: 100+

Math concepts in Scratch?

What math concepts do you think are natural to highlight in Scratch? For example, x-y coordinates. Negative numbers. Estimation...What else?

We are interested in suggestions in order to create a handout that lists basic math concepts that Scratch can help teach/learn.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you may have.

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#2 2007-07-04 00:41:20

Mayhem
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-26
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Those that you have mentioned plus direction and distance, angles, percentages, comparison (Greater than/smaller than, equal), integers, rounding, division with remainders.


Web-spinning Spider:  http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Mayhem/18456
3D Dungeon Adventure:  http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Mayhem/23570
Starfighter X: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Mayhem/21825
Wandering Knight: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Mayhem/28484

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#3 2007-07-05 23:11:11

room209
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-03-17
Posts: 94

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

And random numbers, probability...
Geometry concepts with pen drawing--properties of 2d shapes, congruence, similarity

Last edited by room209 (2007-07-05 23:12:11)

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#4 2007-07-06 11:32:46

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Also variables, equations, absolute value.

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#5 2007-07-13 08:44:14

CAPAT
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-16
Posts: 13

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

METRIC SYSTEM of UNITS of WEIGHTS and MEASURES - SIMPLICITY, CONVERSION and ADVANTAGES WORLDWIDE

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#6 2007-07-13 15:34:03

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Unfortunately, scratch does not include any metric units, so it is not a great support for teaching them.

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#7 2007-09-27 16:01:40

tmacd
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-09-24
Posts: 4

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Good to include (obvious as they are in Scratch...) visualization and reasoning -- essential math skills![block]<when green flag clicked><think[[/block]

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#8 2007-11-23 13:57:27

Garry
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-11-21
Posts: 4

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Is there a gallelry of math games. If not, shouldn't we start one.

Garry

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#9 2007-11-23 17:30:46

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Math Projects http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/6423
has over a hundred math projects.

http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/134
has a somewhat smaller collection.  (I've not checked yet to see if any there are not in Math Projects, but there probably are a few.)

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#10 2007-11-24 08:49:25

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

You can also look for projects with the tag 'math':
http://scratch.mit.edu/tags/math


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#11 2007-11-24 15:57:27

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

There are very few "math" tagged projects not in the Math Projects gallery.

There would be even fewer if the website had an "advanced search" option that would allow queries like
      tagged_with "math"  and not in_gallery 6423

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#12 2007-12-07 08:22:38

magicmark
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-10-19
Posts: 9

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

You could use my game "coverTHEspot" to investigate the area of a circle.
You can find it here:

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/magicmark/62465

For the solution go to "coverTHEspotcheat"

Magic Mark






.

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#13 2008-01-27 09:31:56

dran
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-01-25
Posts: 7

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

simple arithmetic operations, counting , the sense of number through sounds , simple geometry [lines, coordinates] . some simple projects are available at: Math4kids gallery. You can add yours as to revise them and see in practice what can be done with scratch. Follow some links to check:

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/dran/86247
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/dran/86106
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/dran/86134
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/dran/87295   

the last one is nice for space orientation and simple geometric shapes as circle , square. It could be enriched with many other shapes with metric properties on them. I may try something like this . [of course anybode else could do it as the "code" is public].

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#14 2008-01-27 14:58:28

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

There are a lot of math projects in the Math Projects gallery, ranging from trivial drill programs written by kids just learning math facts to trigonometry, linear algebra, and calculus-based projects.
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/6423

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#15 2008-04-28 18:54:25

Bluestribute
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-01-24
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Anything in this block- [blocks]<abs( [/blocks]


http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/1204/bluestributett4.jpg
That's my PSN ID. I know tons of COD4 glitches. Add me as your friend. Oh, and get a headset

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#16 2008-04-30 00:24:20

mrstagg
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-04-26
Posts: 1

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

The "interactive buddy" game copy struck me as a great example of recursion, which might lead naturally into a discussion of fractals.  Anyone do fractals on Scratch yet?

I'm trying to copy some of the Monty Hall games I've seen before, both playing it and simulating a large number of trials with a chosen strategy.  The Monty Hall problem has recently come into the news again as some studied results in psychology have come into question (see NYTimes website, search "math").

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#17 2008-05-01 17:20:18

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Yes, there are a good number of projects about fractals. You can see here:
http://scratch.mit.edu/tags/view/fractal/


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#18 2008-05-02 17:16:51

Bobby500
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-04-19
Posts: 1000+

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

There is aslo some advanced trig stuff like Sin, cos and tan. I don't think that is what you are looking for though.

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#19 2008-05-29 16:24:17

klasbricks
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-05-26
Posts: 37

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Hi I have search through all project tag math and to to build a group called math games http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/16770 - Math game everyone, some games
Myselfhave  spend 80h succed to do a arcade action game for counting 1-10, with automaticlly incressing difficulty 5 levels, keyboard training mode or only 1-5 mode for small children to adult want keyboard practis. Finnish yesterday http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/klasbricks/175278 - sadly i cant added to any math group, can someone else please try to added to math groups
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/10733 - Math for kids
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/10733 - math projects
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/18026 - math projects!
Personal i now look for game for addition training 1-20 like tuxmath.

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#20 2008-07-25 10:38:41

lsquaredmom
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 25

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Even projects that don't illustrate math concepts still use math concepts such as the ones you mentioned.  Controlling graphics is a very math intensive activity.

One that you didn't mention (but maybe someone else did) is angles.  You can rotate things by certain angles and you can position things.  I don't think Scratch uses the convention of what is considered  a positive and negative angle or what direction is considered facing 0 degrees though.

In trigonometry, we teach students that an angle has standard measure if its initial side is along the positive x-axis and then you move counter-clockwise for positive direction and clockwise for negative direction.  I have not yet compared this to how Scratch handles angles.  Forgetting all of that, if you are just concerned about teaching the magnitude of angles, that would be a good thing to helping students do things in Scratch.  Students need to know things such as 90 degrees is a right angle.  360 degrees is all the way around, etc.

You didn't mention the age range of the students that you are creating the handout for.  The concepts you mentioned plus the angle concepts are essential for any age student.  Older students might also want to learn a bit about vectors and matrices which can be very handy for controlling things.

Please post a link to your handout when you finish it if you are willing to share it!

Thanks


http://www.lsquaredmath.us/images/alienSml.jpg

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#21 2008-07-26 04:50:51

ntinos
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-07-22
Posts: 1

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

Just to add my contribution to the math notions discussion: i just made a game on mathematical logic that intends to acquaint children to basic quantity notions; specifically, to the concepts of the "at most" and "at least" quantifiers. Although, i can't say that these concepts come natural in scratch, i believe that developing logic games for children immunizes a sturdy mathematical background for them to build on.

The game is Logical John, you can find it here: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/ntinos/225321

Regards, ntinos

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#22 2009-07-26 11:39:07

bob84
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-05-18
Posts: 12

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

By chance, i came across this thread today, 2009-07-26, one year later the last post, so i'd like to know if there have been outcomes from things posted;

during these few days i have collected and downloaded projects tagged math or physics, but still a finer classification is needed for a teacher/educator willing to use them but with short time to search through the huge amount of proj. tagged that way

math is a too broader tag, IMHO one may need something like:
math/trigonometry
math/euclidean_geometry
math/basic_calculations
...
and so on

the same for physics

comments welcomed !

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#23 2009-07-31 20:31:50

room209
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-03-17
Posts: 94

Re: Math concepts in Scratch?

I've been thinking about this question as the ScratchEd site gets going.  The site is at the beginning, so it is a chance to think fully about how to build structure learning from what has happened on the general web site.  How can we create more useful collections of specific subject-area and subsets project'materials links.  More comments!

Karen R.

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