Lab Entry #4
Introductory Coding Tools for Teachers
Today, we looked at a variety of introductory coding tools for teachers, including the Minecraft: Hero’s Journey game, found at Code.org, and Scratch, an MIT project that helps students learn the basics of animation programming. Both websites were extremely informative and instructive, as well as user friendly, which make the tools easy to use for children and teenagers.
Minecraft: Hero’s Journey
The Code.org Minecraft project was designed especially for children, combining their interest in video-games and their desire to learn how it’s all made possible. The goal of the game is to rearrange the environment of each level, solving puzzles by programming your NPC (non-player characters) to unblock entrances and pass through rivers.
It does, however, require somewhat elevated logical abilities. Even I struggled with having my NPC making moves I never intended, which would sabotage the progression of the puzzle. This is because you can’t see what will play out on the stage until you’ve finished the code — meaning if the code is faulty, you start over and over again until it’s correct.
Despite my frustration, I was shown a taste of the satisfaction received from programming something that works well. This satisfaction is what I’m sure drives programmers to do what it is they do, and why video-games are artistic in their very nature. It was almost embarrassingly rewarding to complete all stages in the Hero’s Journey.
Scratch.mit.edu
Scratch is a project by MIT designed to show the what type of programming goes into animation. Scratch operates very similarly to Code.org’s Minecraft project, in the sense that users are provided with a stage, blocks and a workplace, and are tasked with programming what happens on the stage. Scratch is a much more artistic endeavor than Hero’s Journey since users are free to animate whatever it is they wish, as opposed to solving puzzles within the framework of a video-game.
I made a Halloween scene with a floating ghost, a fluttering bat and a gloomy background. The ghost says “Boo!” as the bat passes near.
This tool I found much more liberating since we are given a blank canvas, and I feel would appeal more to students’ creativity than the Hero’s Journey. It would still be best to show them both since they are equally as informative, and draw a link between video-games and animation.
Uses for Teachers
- Scratch is a great tool for teachers to use in an ELA film class or art class during a unit on film animation. Students will see how difficult it is to even program 2D sprites to perform actions accordingly. Like this, they will acknowledge and appreciate the complexities 3D animation while creating something of their own.
- Scratch could also be used in a math course in a unit on graphs, statistics and the Cartesian plane. Scratch uses the Cartesian plane measurement to position sprites and objects that appear on the stage. Students could be tasked to program a sprite to move along the lines of a wave or slope.
- Minecraft: Hero’s Journey could also be used in a math unit, only this time one on multiplication and optimization. Students are tasked with moving the NPC and acquiring the diamonds in the least amount of blocks, using repeat scripts to help them calculate the minimum amount of movements required.
