One team conceived and executed a brand new game, available to play below.  Coding by Ben, artistic direction by Milo, and creative suggestions by Truman.  This game was built in about 30 minutes…there is still a little debugging to do. Enjoy!

Objective: move the cows to the mothership

Directions: use the arrow keys to navigate and the space bar to deploy your tractor beam.

This week we looked at a specific type of script – the logic statement (also sometimes referred to as an if-then-else statement). We started our day in the Lab Annex with post-it notes and a random name selector (slips of paper in a box). As students names were pulled out of the box, they brought one element of a program up to the board…either an “if”, a “then”, or an “else” statement. Once our programs were built, we ran them!

Some class favorites were:

IF you are Jac,
THEN eat a post-it note,
ELSE sit down.

IF you have an older brother,
THEN do 10 push-ups,
ELSE go to sleep.

IF you have a dog,
THEN sing the “Elmo” song,
ELSE bite your thumb 15 times.

Everyone quickly came to understand logic statements, so we headed to the computers to create them using Scratch. Results were really cool – spinning breakdancers, jumping cats, singing fish and more!

As a stretch, a few students learned about broadcasting – sending a trigger from one object to another to activate a script. Broadcasting allows our sprites to interact with each other…we’ll be looking at this further before the end of the term.

The interface is much like a play or musical. Every actor (sprite) needs a script to follow, a costume to wear and a stage to stand on. Our first day was mostly play, but in the near future we’ll use this software to learn about coordinates (math), boolean search terms (research) and logic statements (life!).

Students are encouraged to help their parents install the program so the fun can continue at home!

Click and hold your mouse to check out this Scratch art project by current 8th grade student Gabe.

One group used the time to catch up on Venn diagrams.  We learned to visually diagram Boolean terms using Venn diagrams.  The other group got to watch a new Discovery Channel show called “Prototype This!” which can be watched online for free.

Wednesday we took a review worksheet designed to find out how well the tech teachers have taught Venn diagrams.  The rest of the period was free exploration in Scratch.  Most students have successfully incorporated at least one Boolean operator into their programs.

• 14 students ski
• 4 students snowboard
• 1 student doesn’t ski or snowboard

Using Boolean operators, we examined our data and found that:

• 11 students ski NOT snowboard
• 2 students snowboard NOT ski
• 2 students ski AND snowboard
• 1 student NOT ski
• 1 student NOT snowboard
• 1 student NOT ski NOT snowboard

Once our group application of the Boolean operators was complete, students began individual assignments adding AND/OR/NOT into Scratch and combining them with the logic statements they had already created.

This week we got wrapped up in an introduction to programming – there are so many exciting discoveries that the 6th grade voted to delay typing to the week of October 6th.

Scratch is an open-source introduction to programming and animation created by MIT.  The interface is drag-and-drop, meaning we don’t have to write the code ourselves and can get right to making stuff happen. Topics covered this week:

• Similarities between Scratch and a stage performance (actors, stage, backgrounds, costumes, scripts)
• If/Then/Else logic statements
• Loops
• Initiation of programs

We also took some time to access and explore personal student network drives and discussed the use of the server to save and access files.

We also took some time to try adding parentheses to our Boolean statements and examine the effects. For example:

(4 + 7) x 3 = 33
4 + (7 x 3) = 25

(ultimate AND hiking) OR softball
ultimate AND (hiking OR softball)

Some students discovered that if there is an “OR” in a statement, then there are 2 conditions that meet criteria. That means that we will have 2 instances (or “x”s) in our Venn diagrams when we use an OR statement.

Boolify.org actually helps you build a Boolean search, although our 6th grade students don’t need the extra assistance any more!

Isabel defined Boolean operators as “a way of constructing your research question and finding the connections between your research terms. also connection between words and phrases.”

Almost everyone knew the 3 most useful operators: AND, OR, NOT

We solidified our learning with a Boolean worksheet that made all of our brains hurt and then discussed our answers.

Next week we will use Boolean operators  to refine search engine requests and also to build a simple program in Scratch.

Players can choose to play the game in easy, medium or hard mode. Every game gets more difficult as the score increases. Backgrounds change colors, there are sounds when you intersect the goals or obstacles and the baddies move faster the longer you play. Try your hand at, “GAME”:

First project by Michael (8th grade)