December 2007 — News
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Coding (and Consulting) Kid-style with Scratch
"My dad works at a computer place, and he programs a lot," said Natalie. "I thought it was dumb. I didn't understand the point of it. But when I learned Scratch, I learned how important it is and how fun it is to do it."
Almost all of Randall's home class works with it at home as well. Likewise, all report that they've gone to the Scratch Web site to see what other kids are doing and to copy command blocks from other programs to use in their own.
Scratch isn't the only development language Randall's students have used. Some have experience with LCSI MicroWorlds, Adobe Flash, Sun Microsystems Java, and Apple Automator.
However, most say they don't necessarily want to be a programmer when they grow up. "Not everything you do as a kid has to involve what you do when you grow up," said Eileen, a student.
Randall's home room class recently went on a multi-day camping trip and then teamed up to develop Scratch programs to illustrate what they saw and learned about at the park. Colin and Howard created a program showing a swan eating lead and dying. Sam and Rawley wrote a program showing a tree being hit by lightening and dying and then rotting and turning into new grass. Kate and Micaela created a project about cattails and their need for water. Malee and Jessica's program shows how animals add fertilizer to the ground. In each example, the overall message is that everything is connected to everything else in the ecosystem.
For another project, the students created tutorials about using Scratch and posted those to the school Web site. "So when we were studying procedures, we chose Scratch procedures to write about," said Randall. "That was writing and reading curriculum."
A Consulting Success
Once the programs for the consulting project were developed, the Expo students returned to Bridge View to share them with their "clients."
Among the projects made for the Bridge View students was one for Isaac, "who really likes movement," said Alec, a student in Randall's class. "If he presses this button, all these cars move. If he presses it again, they stop."
Natalie and her partner created a dress-up game for their client, Atasha, to learn about cause and effect. "When you click on a certain article of clothing, you get to dress a person." The switch is like a teeter-totter tied to two colors--pink and purple. When Atasha chooses the pink end by pressing it against a tinfoil contact, her sprite wears a pink dress.
Kate, Hana and Colleen created a game for Chi, a student who really likes music, that points to the part of a face in order to get music to play. "That helps him learn where his senses are," said Kate. After the music plays, a recorded voice says, "Good job, Chi!"
