Scratch - term 2 session 3 - 23.11.2013

Hi Scratchers,

Thanks all for attending session 3 of the Scratch dojo! A small delay in getting the summary up, but here we are! :-)

There were a lot of cool things we could have fun with and we all had a quick look at examples of the following:

Part 1

We went for a story in Scratch and tried to go through the following steps:

• sit back and think about your story; the storyline
• how many characters are in your story?
• what costumes do they have?
• How do you want your characters to behave (move/sounds/look/...)?
• how do your characters react to each other? (follow each other? or bump into each other? or ...?)

This doesn't look easy at first, but the more you do it, the better & cooler your apps/games/stories/etc will work out!

While working on this, we ended up using other things, like for example "talk" and "listen" (broadcast and receive) as well! A really cool mechanism for making sure everything in your app or game happens at exactly the right time!

Part 2

The other thing we looked at was using the pen to draw on the stage. This is something that can do so many different cool things!

We looked at a few examples, like a game where you have to try not to cross a line. The lines are being drawn by a character moving around on screen "with the pen down". 

The other example was a flying carpet that draws a line wherever you fly it. Pressing space left a 'stamp' of the flying carpet in that location.

The last example was the helicopter drawing flowers. This was a little more tricky, but actually not bad at all :-)

You can find this project here: flower project

Change the values in the script and see what happens to the flower ;-)

We could make the flower using our knowledge of the circle:

We started drawing shapes with a bit of knowledge from the circle:

- if you go all the way around, you need 360 steps (or: degrees, call it the angle)

- a triangle has 3 corners, so each corner's angle is 360 divided into 3 = 120 degrees

- a cube has 4 corners, so each corner's angle is 360 divided into 4 = 90 degrees

- etc.

With the flower, you can see what cool stuff you can do with a few loops, pen and color (and a helicopter;-))

Oh, before I forget, please note that the above link takes you to the project in Scratch 2.0, which is web-based. In class we have been using Scratch version 1.4 which is installed on the computer. Scratch 2.0 is no longer installed on the computer, it just runs in your internet browser. 

If you have access to a computer with Scratch, have a go at a movie, or draw some shapes! It would be subzero cool if you can show your work at the next session?!?!

What will be next session? A quiz maybe???

Enjoy fellow Scratchers and until next session!

Session 3 (or was it 2?) - 16.11.2013

Howdy. We had quite a good session last Saturday I must admit. Questions were asked, bugs were squashed (not real bugs, just program problems), and I think that everyone involved enjoyed it.
What we didi this time was a very nice game called "The bat cave", initially developed by Steve O'Neil. Original document can be found at www.oneil.com.au/pc/scratch/Scratch-Lesson-2.pdf‎, please have a look if you did not finish your game on Saturday - we might need it soon.
As a reminder, we covered the following things:

1. moving a sprite using a keyboard in different ways (changes to x and y and rotate and move)
2. moving a sprite towards a mouse pointer
3. doing the same action over and over again - loops
4. checking if something happened - conditions
5. detecting collisions - with colour and another object
6. using variabled to maintain a counter of lives
7. simple animation using two costumes

If you are not sure about any of the above, ask at the start of the next session, and we will try to help you.

Veterans, as we call them, were working on a Super Mario like game, and they got basic jumping physics implemented, so things should go very quickly in the next session - I can't wait to see the finished game :)

Scratch - term 2 session 1 - 131109

Hi All, 

That was a great start of the new Scratch term. The new Scratchers did great, I was amazed how it was picked up by them! It turns out we also have a number of returning Scratchers from term 1 earlier this year! (Are they 'The Scratch A-Team'? ;-))
There will be a challenge for you guys next session!

We have started the first term with an Intro into about:

• What is coding, programming languages
• What is Scratch
• The Scratch interface
• What can you do with Scratch
• How to get started: Plan, Create, Test, Extend!
• Sit back and think about the game, ask yourself things like:
• what is the story line?
• what background(s) do you need?
• what/how many characters do you have in it?
• how should each character behave?
• what costumes does each character need?
• what interaction is there between characters?
• where should the interaction be scripted?
• and... start small!
• How to make progress:
• remember there is lots of different ways to code something!
• build a bit, test, fix, improve... and repeat
• save your work every now and then
• look at other projects, share your project

Next we made sure everybody had Scratch installed. We decided for the moment to use Scratch v1.4.

The first game we have been building is Patrick vs Crabby:

This involved:

• an under-the-sea theme backdrop/stage
• 2 characters in the story: Patrick and Crabby
• Patrick:
• a starfish
• 2 costumes (scared and happy face)
• moving up/down/left/right by cursor keys
• Crabby
• a crab
• 2 costumes (claws open/closed)
• moving by itself:
• first turns a bit (a full circle is 360 degrees, so we used a random number between 0 and 360)
• then moves a bit (a random number of steps)
• we used 'bounce on edge' to prevent him moving out of the stage
• Interaction:
• if Patrick is touched by Crabby, he changes to scared face and says Ouch!

After building this, we added a number of lives for Patrick, and each time he was caught by Crabby, he lost a life. Next we discussed options of adding sounds, or a timer etc.

Note there are some tutorials here but don't forget to also look at projects that others have shared on the Scratch website. See what they did and how they did it!

HTML Session 1 Summary

Hi All, 

Hope that you enjoyed the first HTML session today. 

Summary of what we covered at Session 1: 

• Installed HTML Editor. 
• Created a Coderdojo folder to hold our webpages and an img sub-folder to hold our images 
• Set the language each time we create a page to HTML (Language Menu --> H--> HTML) 
• Learned to save our pages as HTML files and the importance of saving our work frequently so we don't lose our work. 
• Learned about opening and closing tags. 
• Learned what an element is.<html>, <head> and <body> tags 
• Created basic HTML file with <head> 
• Testing our pages as we go (Run Menu --> Launch in Chrome or Launch in IE) 
• Keyboard shortcuts: 

• CTRL + C = Copy highlighted text 
• CTRL + V = Paste copied text 
• CTRL + Z = Undo the last change made 
• F5 (or on some laptops FN + F5) = Refreshes the pages currently displayed in the browser 

• We covered the following tags: 

• <html></html> 
• <head></head> 
• <body></body> 
• <title></title> 
• Heading Tags 

• <h1></h1> 
• <h2></h2> 
• <h3></h3> 
• <h4></h4> 
• <h5></h5> 
• <h6></h6> 

• <hr> 
• Formatting tags 

• <b></b> 
• <I></i> 
• <u></u> 

• <br> 

To follow-up on our first HTML session today, here are the resources that we recommend you use to learn more about HTML: 

• www.w3schools.com 
• www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp 

• For HTML specific info 

• https://dash.generalassemb.ly/ 

• For interactive HTML training  

• http://www.prchecker.info/web-hosting/top-10-free-web-hosting-sites/ 

• Lists some free website hosting providers. There are many others. 

• http://www.biz.nf/ 

• One of many free web hosting sites 

Homework for next week: 

• Practice creating pages using the tags you learned today 
• Ensure that Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is available on your laptop. 

Videos from the session today: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5oe63pOhLI 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj7A2YDgIWE 

For more information about the Cork Internet Exchange where internet traffic is sent through, have a look at http://www.cix.ie/about.html including the YouTube video. 

HTML Editors: 

One thing we learned today is that Notepad ++ did not work on the Apple Mac. Our recommedation for HTML editors are:

Notepad ++ - PC Only (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.5.1.html)

Komodo Editor - Apple Mac (http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit/downloads/thank-you?dl=http://downloads.activestate.com/Komodo/releases/8.5.2/Komodo-Edit-8.5.2-13850-macosx-x86_64.dmg)

Cobh Coder Dojo, Season 2

And we are back. Slightly later than expected but hey, we have new mentors and new plans :) There are also few changes form the last time we met, so please read on.
This time we are going to run sessions in five weeks blocks, so we do not have to run the same introduction to Scratch lession over and over again. This will allow us to deliver more material in a more organised manner. We are also going to have three separate streams of activities:

1. Scratch. Scratch is a programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. Created by smart folks at MIT, it allows for gentle introduction to quite advanced programming concepts. This stream is suitable for all ages, but if you did Scratch the last time with us, you might want to choose a different one. You can have a look at scratch.mit.edu to see what can be done with Scratch.
2. HTML. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. During this stream you will learn how to create web pages showing whatever you want :) Less programming oriented than other streams, great if you are looking for means to express your artistic self.
3. Processing. Processing is a programming language and develoment environement, designed to teach programming concepts in easy and accessible way. It is used to build games, visual presentations, and all sort of cool projects. You can see more of them at processing.org. This stream is intended for those of you who are bored with Scratch (and aged 12 and over).

So, have a look around, make decision, and signup for whatever stream you find interesting :)