Cloning Bullets in Scratch 2.0

 Student's are ususally surprised when I teach them how to program weapons for their games.  They accept the cultural taboo on violence in school and expect it to extend to the games they design. Many teachers and parents agree-- then turn around and support our study of literature that includes everything from Hamlet to The Hunger Games. The act of creating and participating in fictional violence tiggers a more viceral response than passively reading about it.  And unlike typical composition assignments, when students are plotting video games, they are keenly concerned with how thier audience will react to the choices they make.  It's a fantastic catalyst for discussions of rhetoric and the social values.

Since many of my students are new to Scratch, I created the following video to get them off to a smooth start.

 

Here's step-by-step video guide to programming bullets with the cloning tools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e8ApwSh84U

I took particular care to tweak the size and resolution of the screen capture so that the blocks are legible at small, medium and large formats.