Makey Makey and Scratch

Using Scratch and Makey Makey

I had a lot of fun and spent way too much time coming up with a skiing game using Scratch.  The game uses different sprites as backgrounds.  I've set the background sprites to move so it appears that my skier sprite is actually moving downhill.  This took me a long time, you can go into the code and have a look.  One of the challenges is the sprites were moving at different speeds.  Once I figured some multiplication and division strategies to have each sprite background roll on and off the screen at equal rates, all was good.  I used a broadcast feature so that when you collect a hat - the crowd shares a message.  Points are scored for hats and deducted for time in the trees.  Have a go at it.


Now for the Makey Makey, I thought a good authentic controller would be one you could use with your feet.  I used two wet paper towels and fixed alligator clips to them, one for each foot.  You control the skier with your feet, right and left.  I like the hands free part of the game - makes the play experience a little more fun.  Link to Video

What I took away from this project was coming up with strategies to accomplish what my goals were. I listed on paper the game elements I wanted.  I then broke those elements down into workable units to set up the code.  By working on a section at a time, I could make a large project seem smaller.  I also tried different iterations of the game and did a bit of testing.  Sure, I'd like to change many of the ways the game plays, but I got some good practice with conditional statements and loops to achieve a usable first version.

CS First Game Design Units
I finally finished my first 8 activities with Google's CS First web series using Scratch.  I never knew so many tools are available using Scratch.  This program is probably the best set of training activities to learn the Scratch program and to learn the fundamentals of programming in general.  I only wish you could see the actual code after completing the blocks to get a better idea of what the actual code looks like.  For students in middle and high school, this would be a great feature.

 

Working Through CS-First

Google's CS-First program is an excellent introduction into Scratch and the basics of computer programming.  Exploring conditional statements, operators and events all in the name of design creates limitless development opportunities and coding challenges.  I've taken my time exploring the Game Design section of CS-First, dedicating an hour or so to each unit.  So far I've completed the first three units.  While I have done some Scratch work before, I have been learning a lot more through this instructional platform.  The add-ons section is really informative and I found myself looking at each one.  I found it helpful to tell myself what I want the sprite to to or how the game to react and then I find the tools to block program that.  Very intuitive once you think about the thinking!   I'd like to make a game, I just don't have an idea of what it might be yet.  Looking forward to working through the rest of the units. 

PlumGeek - Wink Robot Arrives

My Wink robot from PlumGeek arrived today.  I was surprised by how small it is.  It literally fits in the palm of your hand.  No instructions were included, just a link to plumgeek.com for information.  I downloaded the drivers and updated my Arduino IDE libraries with sample code.

After charging for about an hour, I struggled to find the ON button and to get my remote control to work.  After testing my batteries and signing up for the product forums and posting about my dud of a remote, I logged some time looking at other forum posts.  It turns out there was an update to one of the sketches which fixed the remote issues.  Got to love forums!

When I turned on my Wink, the audio boomed through my quiet Student Services office and I received a bunch of staredowns.  Looks like I'll have to figure out how to adjust the sound and then get into some fun coding exercises.