I had so much fun with this project! Scratch can be so silly but also so personal;
there is something uncanny about seeing something you made inside a working,
interactive video game. I could not wait
to share my work with my friends, and we all had a good laugh. I knew I wanted to make a funny controllable
character, using my images and sound, and I figured adapting the catch game
would be a fun and attainable challenge.
I oriented the action on the X axis, rather than the Y as suggested, and
incorporated a separate feature for collide.
This did not work entirely as planned since the collision occurs with a
moving object. The sound also became
problematic, as I could not figure out how to make different sounds play in
different scenarios. I found that I
bargained with the code in order to get something close to what I was hoping
for. The result was still playable. With time, I could easily check with the
Scratch community to see what the best practice is.
The value in working in Scratch is that because it is
challenging, it is so rewarding when it pays off. My roommate’s immediate reaction was to say,
“You made a video game? That sounds so
difficult!” I was proud of my work,
which has not happened so concretely in a while. I can envision children especially becoming
very excited with their games and interactive animations, since it really is a
feat for their age. I also really like
the element of breaking stereotypes; you can code no matter what age or
gender! That is very empowering.
A second takeaway for the classroom is the connection to
STEM, which is so popular in schools today.
Scratch is especially technology-based, engineering-minded, and mathematically
dependent (i.e. probability and event-framing).
I think a really wonderful class would collaborate with other STEM
teachers to make a very meaningful, hands-on experience.
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