Planning: What is creative computing?
What are the different ways you interact with computers?
How many of those ways involve you creating with computers?
Over the next lessons, you will be creating interactive computational media using Scratch.
You build projects by snapping blocks together, just as you can build things in the physical world by snapping LEGO bricks together. There are more than 100 blocks in 8 different categories when you build with Scratch.
Let's try to make the cat do a dance! (Make sure you have Scratch open on your computer.)
1- Start by dragging out the “move 10 steps” block from the “Motion” blocks palette to the scripting area. Every time you click on the block the cat moves a distance of 10.
You can change the number to make the cat move a greater or smaller distance.
2- From the “Sound” palette, drag out the “play drum” block.
Click on the block to hear its drum sound.
Drag and snap the “play drum” block below the “move“ block.
When you click on this stack of two blocks, the cat will move and then play the drum sound.
3- Copy this stack of blocks (either using the Duplicate toolbar item or by right-clicking the stack and selecting “duplicate”) and snap the copy to the already-placed blocks.
Change the second “move” block to -10 steps, so the cat moves backward.
Every time the stack of four blocks is clicked, the cat does a little dance forward and back.
4- Go to the “Control” blocks palette and grab the “repeat” block.
Wrap the “repeat” block around the other blocks in the scripting area.
Now when you click on the stack, the cat dances forward and back 10 times.
5- Finally, drag the “when Sprite clicked” block and snap it to the top of the stack.
Click on the cat (instead of the blocks stack) to make the cat dance.
Hopefully, you made your cat dance like the wind!
· The Scratch website (http://scratch.mit.edu) has many interesting examples of projects that others have created.
Planning: Defining the processes of computational design
· The other tools you will have access to during your design activities are:
o Design notebook, for recording ideas and plans, as well as for responding to the design notebook questions;
o Resource library, for accessing other forms of support, such as Scratch cards, or reminders of strategies for getting unstuck;
o Scratch website, for storing projects and finding inspiration and help.
Exploring: Something surprising
· Take 10 minutes to explore the Scratch interface: try to make something surprising happen to a sprite.” You can work together with another student, ask each other for help, and share what you are figuring out during the 10 minutes.
Reflecting: Our discoveries
· Be ready to share with the entire group one thing you discovered. (Maybe write it down in your Design Notebook.)
· Some things that you could share are:
How to add a costume?
How to add sound?
How to change the background?
How to access the help screens for particular blocks?
If you did not figure these out, don't worry you'll discover these as you work more with Scratch.
