Dragon's Hobbies - Blog

[url=https://www.amazon.com/Coding-Games-Scratch-Carol-Vorderman-dp-0593841867/dp/0593841867/ref=dp_ob_title_bk]Coding Games In Scratch by Dr. Jon Woodcock[/url] (Revised and updated for Scratch 3.0 with Foreward by Carol Vorderman) is a book that I&#39;ve been trying to use to get my kids into programming. My middle daughter likes using block coding to make things on Code.org, so I thought this might be a good one since Scratch is a block-based programming language that was developed for educational use by MIT. So far she hasn&#39;t gotten interested in going through the book yet, but I have myself. I wanted to prepare for any questions that they had, if any.<br /><br />I found something that I think would be very difficult for a child in the target audience to figure out, I even struggled to find the appropriate code block.<br /><br />In Chapter 4, Cheese Chase, on page 54, step 8, there is a reference to the &quot;direction of Gamepad&quot;. I looked through the Sensing options and found &quot;backdrop # of Stage&quot; but I couldn&#39;t see &quot;direction&quot; to select from the first dropdown until after I selected &quot;Gamepad&quot; in the second dropdown.<br /><br />Similarly, in Chapter 6, Jumpy Monkey, on page 96, step 7, there is a reference to the &quot;direction of Launcher&quot;. A few days later, I had forgotten what I did before. I reviewed the entire list of code blocks again, from top to bottom. I noticed the Sensing options trying to adjust the &quot;backdrop #&quot; from &quot;backdrop # of Stage&quot; but I couldn&#39;t find &quot;direction&quot; so I looked for it in another code block. Eventually I realized I needed to select from the first dropdown only after selecting &quot;Launcher&quot; in the second dropdown.<br /><br />If you&#39;re reading through this book, I recommend making a note for the readers to find the &quot;... of ...&quot; block in the Sensing section. It would be nice if the book explained more about selecting the target object first, and provide clearer visual clues for harder-to-find code blocks.<br /><br />Other than that, I think the book has been great. Even though the target audience is for children in grades 3-6, I&#39;ve been enjoying learning more about the capabilities of Scratch myself.

Last week, I went through the whole book myself. Now, I&#39;m making Mario Bros (1983 arcade style) in Scratch. It&#39;s coming together pretty well. I don&#39;t have a whole lot, just Mario, with the platforms, the POW button, and a fireball, but I&#39;m happy with it. <br /> <br />[url=https://dragonshobbies.com/scratch/index.php]Take a look at my little video of it.[/url]