Project Ideas

Here are Scratch project ideas generated by participants at the Creative Computing 2012 workshop:

Art project ideas

• random picture generator
• create a montage of shapes and colors to communicate a theme to coordinate with specified music
• create a random abstract pattern/picture
• use only visual representations for a piece of music to capture the same emotions/reactions
• how to draw step-by-step
• vibrating colors with music
• walking through a famous painting
• beautiful corpse projects - in small groups, have each child be responsible for a different aspect of a project agreed upon by the group
• what can you do with four dots?
• a changing display of favorites with sound - favorite art works, movies, poems
• fibonacci numbers in nature
• mandalas or navajo sand painting
• modifying historical photos
• creating habitats, micro-environments
• visualize the sunset

Story project ideas

• retell Aesop Fable "rotating author" with student telling something about themself
• students animate a fairy tale with 3's of something (3 bears, 3 little pigs, etc) but add a "twist" ending
• do a Scratch project on a Spanish-speaking country - audio in Spanish for 30 seconds
• cell division, scientific method
• ask your students: "What do you think would make our world a more perfect place to be?" and have them illustrate it in Scratch
• retell your favorite song
• have students make a story to share with their parents at parent-teacher conferences - what I've learned, etc
• first game at Fenway
• how to build or make something
• older students could introduce a new student to their school - "a day in the life of"
• tableau for make books sing
• the elevator doors open and… - once you've built one, you can go on to make other floors, the reader chooses? or a class project where each student creates a floor in the apartment building
• you are in charge of taking the kindergarten class on a field trip, where did you go and what happened?
• Scratch journey
• share your summer activities through a Scratch project
• what would happen if you followed your pet (or a stray dog) for a day
• sunday afternoon on an island… - have characters come to the island looking for an artist
• choose a planet and tell how it was discovered
• choose a state and tell how it was discovered
• you and a friend (or two fantasy creatures) challenge each other to a game of ___ and start playing
• what will life be like when you are 40
• tell a story explaining how you solved a problem
• have the kids do fire drill instructions, cafeteria procedures, etc. to display on our classroom displays
• my favorite number and why
• have everyone in the class create a six-word story and place in a bowl, students pick a story out of the bowl and continue the story via Scratch
• what did you do over the summer

Game project ideas

• catapult shooter or Angry Birds
• some kind of memory game matching artists to their artworks
• ask content questions for review and program a rewards list
• make a maze from a photo with color sensing
• obstacle avoidance game similar to Frogger
• six-word poetry generator
• match the math formula with the correct shape, line, drawing, etc.
• students are challenged to create a game that emulates building a bridge
• Pac Man type game

Remember that projects can cross multiple genres or disciplines. Be inspired to mix, mashup, or remix these ideas. Have another great project idea? Please share it below.