Creative Computing Introduction

Below is a link to my opening presentation from the Creative Computing workshop for K-12 teachers, organized by our group at the MIT Media Lab on July 16-18, 2009, in connection with Google's CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) initiative.

As part of the presentation, I also showed a collection of Scratch projects:

Josh Graduation: My brother Stuart and I made this "graduation card" in celebration of our nephew Josh's graduation from high school. I showed this project to demonstrate how I use Scratch in my personal life.

Tennis Statistics: My friend Ken and I play tennis each week. One year, he won 71% of the sets we played, but only 54% of the games. So I created this simulation to see what percentage of sets he should expect to win, given that he wins 54% of the games. This project serves as another example of how I use computational thinking in my everyday life.

Merry Christmas: This interactive animation was created by MyRedNeptune, an active member of the Scratch online community.

Animated Sprites: MyRedNeptune created this collection of animated sprites, and offered them on the Scrateh website for use bh other members of the Scratch community. MyRedNeptune also offered to create custom animations, based on requests from other community members.

Cheetah Animation: Based on a request from another Scratch community member, MyRedNeptune created this animation, using a National Geographic video as a guide.

Drawing Tutorial: MyRedNeptune created this interactive tutorial to show other members of the Scratch community how to draw a bird's wing.

Group-Created Game: MyRedNeptune joined with several other members of the Scratch community (in several different countries) to start an online "company," called Crank Inc., to create video games. Here is one of their games.

Birthday Card: MyRedNeptune made this birthday card for another member of the Crank Inc. team -- demonstrating how the team members used Scratch for many different purposes.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Scratch is increasingly being used in schools. This project was created by a 12-year-old student in Bangalore, India, to demonstrate what he had learned in a class about the layers of the earth.

Rapa Nui: This project was created by a student for his history class, where they were studying the island of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island). The project, in the spirit of SimCity, simulates life on the island, highlighting the local culture and economy.

Do You Know Europe?: A teacher in Europe created this project to help her students learn the countries of Europe.

Science Project: An elementary-school student created this project to test the reaction times of other students. By putting this project on the Scratch website, the student was able to collect data from people around the world.

Charlotte's Web: This book-report project was created by a student in an elementary-school class in Minnesota which uses Scratch in many different parts of the curriculum. The class has put its projects in online galleries of Book Reports, Ecosystem Reports (based on a visit to a local wildlife preserve), and Adaptive Technology projects (designed to help younger special-needs students).