Scratch Book Review

There are tons of online resources for learning to code with Scratch, but once in a while it’s nice to use a real book. I recently purchased one of the DK workbooks, Coding in Scratch: Projects, written by Steve Setford and JonWoodcock. This isn’t a very comprehensive book (only 40 pages); but then, it isn’t very expensive either (only $5.69 on Amazon). But this little book packs a lot of information into a colorful, simple-to-understand format.

While it has the look of an introductory book, its 5 projects are fairly sophisticated and jump right into some of the more advanced concepts like sprite editing, score keeping, random number generation, and mouse control. For example, the Weird Music project teaches you how to play musical instruments (a common introductory tutorial). But it takes the project to a whole different level by showing you how to vary the loudness and notes based on the distance and direction between the sprite and the mouse-pointer. That’s a lot of embedded arithmetic operations, but the book’s colorful graphics make it look easy.

As an educator, the feature I like best about the DK workbooks are the Show What You Know activity pages at the end of each project. They’re a great way to reinforce concepts and give kids a chance to reflect on lessons learned. Overall, I highly recommend this book as a great code-at-home resource. I just might look into adding the Coding in Scratch: Games book to my collection.

Code-at-Home Options: Scratch

With kids in my neighborhood starting back to school online, I began to research ways they could learn coding at home. Scratch immediately sprang to mind as one practical option. It’s drag-and-drop, multi-platform, and best of all… free. BUT is it easy to use with little-to-no teacher interaction?

I’ve used Scratch before, so I’m not a complete novice; but like most software, it’s much easier to use once you know what you’re doing. First of all, I had trouble finding the tutorials. You’d think they’d be under Explore, but instead they’re under Ideas. It would be even better if they would just put a Tutorial button right on the menu bar.

The tutorials come in 3 forms: video, coding cards, and an educator guide. I personally preferred the coding cards. They require a bit of reading, but the pdf files are loaded with colorful graphics. Kids probably prefer video format, but I found them to be somewhat cryptic and a bit buggy. I had to keep pausing and replaying the video to figure out what the mouse was clicking on.

In a few days, I’ll have lost my fresh perspective and wonder what I was making a fuss about. But for the moment, I think Scratch is a great coding language for kids, but I wonder if younger learners would be able to pick it up independently at home without some initial teacher interaction.  

Coding Challenge

 

Pitsco has teamed up with Arduino to sponsor a Code for Good Challenge. The goal of this competition is to encourage students to design a solution to a problem. Let's face it. During this pandemic, it's easy to find a wealth of problems that need innovative touch-free solutions like this Anti-Face Touching Alarm Cap created by Dynamic Innovator. The contest is open to students ages 13-18 working individually or as a team. A video of your Arduino-based project must be submitted to Pitsco by October 3, 202 by an adult - either your mentor, coach, or parent. Contest rules are here.

New Coding & Coloring Book

I often occupy my time during the cold winter months designing a new STEM activity. This year I wrote a storybook about a group of robots who compete in the Office Olympics during Send Your Robot toWork Day. 

The book is based around Botley, a coding robot from Learning Resources. In the story, Botley is owned by Mr V, a wacky inventor who spends his days designing goofy gadgets for science teachers. As Botley and his friends compete in the Olympic events, they discover that someone is trying to sabotage the competition – magnets slow down motors, coding cards get switched, lights are turned off during line following. These are just a few of the many obstacles Botley and his friends must overcome.

There are 13 coding exercises sprinkled throughout the book. As kids follow along with the story, they are encouraged to pause and replicate Botley’s moves using the coding instructions found in the Try It Yourself sections. They can learn to make Botley talk, navigate a maze, follow lines, spin around, dance, and avoid obstacles (with Botley’s included activity set, it’s easy to create unique playing fields). Botley uses a Remote Programmer for coding rather than a computer or tablet making it the perfect beginning robot for those young students who haven’t yet learned to read but can manipulate a button-press. I tried it out on my 4-year old nephew, and he caught on immediately.

With the advent of the pandemic, publication of my book was put on hold. So I spent my time during lockdown illustrating the story with scenes of the robots and their various mishaps. Now the book is available in 2 formats on Amazon: a paperback coding and coloring book for the more creative types who like to incorporate a little artistic flair in their STEM activities; or an eBook – the cheaper alternative for those strictly interested in coding.

Incidentally, I have no affiliation with Learning Resources. I just think Botley is cute and clever. I recently discovered that Learning Resources came out with a Botley 2.0 – a second generation robot that still uses a Remote Programmer for coding. He’s got a few more button-presses and his eyes light up, but basically he operates in much the same way. If you have a young child quarantined at home during this pandemic, Botley is a great way to keep the hands-on principles of STEM alive.