Intermediate Level Loops and Event Recognition

Contributed by K Rusniak, July 17, 2012

Fun experimentation with loops and event recognition to control and manipulate a character. Good for kids of all ages over several workshop sessions.

Original Author: Kathy Rusniak
Education Level: Elementary School, Middle School
Content Types: Activity, Handout, Sample Scratch Project, Tutorial
Curricular Areas: Computer Science
Keywords: handout, example project

I'm using this tutorial for kids I'm mentoring in a social services setting that range from 6-12 years old. While they all have different levels of ability and interest, the possibilities of adding a few loops and conditional statements together with event recognition has sparked interest and excitement in all of the kids. I don't expect them all to understand or execute everything in this project, but I do encourage them to try parts of the project in each workshop session and I try to emphasize the idea of connecting small steps together to build a complex program that is understandable and manageable. The pages are meant to be printed, folded in half and stapled together as a small guide to be handed out to the kids. A couple kids showed interest in taking the guides home and I left the rest in the computer lab for any kids outside the workshop that may be interested.