Technology Challenge 10- Coding- Scratch!

 Scratch!

Never has a webpage induced so much apprehension as logging in to Scratch did! It took some positive self talk to give this a go. I remember doing coding in computer class back in high school and not liking it AT ALL! I followed the instructions step and step and was pleasantly surprised at how user friendly this coding platform was. Here is a screen shot of my work in progress. I am still working on how to 'end' a game. I was able to add a timer after watching some youtube tutorials. 

The game I made was a variation of Fish! with this game having a shark, beetles and a puffer fish as the sprites. I wanted to use a frog and beetles but there wasn't enough costumes to accommodate the changes for the sprite when it 'ate' the beetles and puffer fish. I can see how children would engage in this digital technology and I recall observing some year 5 and 6 students at a school using this was used as a reward time for students- they loved it! I, on the other hand, had no idea what they were doing until I learnt more about it partaking in this challenge!

Troubleshooting

Some things I am still working out..

1. How to increase the speed of the shark sprite as it follows the cursor around- its very slow!

2. How to 'end' the game.

Curriculum Links

Digital Technologies Years 5-6

Achievement standard:  Years 5 and 6

Learning area achievement standard

By the end of Year 6 students explain how people design products, services and environments to meet the needs of communities, including sustainability. For each of the 3 prescribed technologies contexts students explain how the features of technologies impact on design decisions and they create designed solutions. They process data and show how digital systems represent data, design algorithms involving complex branching and iteration, and implement them as visual programs including variables. They select and justify design ideas and solutions against design criteria. Students share and communicate ideas or content to an audience using technical terms, graphical representation techniques and appropriate digital tools. They develop project plans, including production processes, and select technologies and techniques to safely produce designed or digital solutions. Students securely access and use multiple digital systems and describe their components and how they interact to process and transmit data. They identify their digital footprint and recognise its permanence.

Knowledge and understanding

investigate the main internal components of common digital systems and their function (AC9TDI6K01)

Processes and production

Investigating and Defining

-define problems with given or co-developed design criteria and by creating user stories (AC9TDI6P01)

Generating and Designing

-design algorithms involving multiple alternatives (branching) and iteration (AC9TDI6P02)

-design a user interface for a digital system (AC9TDI6P03)

-generate, modify, communicate and evaluate designs (AC9TDI6P04)

Producing and implementing

-implement algorithms as visual programs involving control structures, variables and input (AC9TDI6P05)

Evaluating

-evaluate existing and student solutions against the design criteria and user stories and their broader community impact (AC9TDI6P06)

Collaborating and Managing

-select and use appropriate digital tools effectively to create, locate and communicate content, applying common conventions (AC9TDI6P07)

-select and use appropriate digital tools effectively to share content online, plan tasks and collaborate on projects, demonstrating agreed behaviours (AC9TDI6P08)