Session 4

Space time

• Ask the children what they think an animation is? An animation is a type of film-making where you make characters move – link to popular movies such as ‘Up’, ‘Inside Out’, ‘Minions’, etc.

• Look at the ‘Lost in space animation’ (above)

• This animation is set in space; depending on your topic, you might want to create your own model that fits in with your topic. All the activities below would still work as long as you use similar code blocks to create your version.

• Using the template below, ask the children to discuss with their partner which of the blocks they think have been used and tick them on the resource. This is the start of a skill called ‘decomposition’, where you think about a program or problem and break it down into small parts.

• Ask the children to share why they think those blocks are included – Which character/sprite uses that coding block?

You little Tynker!

• Explain that they will ‘remix’ an animation, which means to create a copy of the program and change it to do what you want it to. This means not starting with a ‘blank page’ but taking someone else’s idea and altering the code. The opportunity to ‘remix’ a project means the creator of the original idea has allowed permission for alterations to be made for code learning purposes, which is different to say copying and pasting an image from the internet.

• Ask the children if they think that copying someone else’s work or pictures from the internet a good thing to do? Let them discuss in pairs and then to feedback to you. Explain that copying someone’s work directly without crediting them, is like stealing as people who create content for online purposes have own the ‘copyright’ for their work. ‘Copyright’ is a legal way of protecting a creator’s original piece of work. People can get into trouble with the law if they do not have permission to copy a creator’s work.

• Using iPads, tell the children to access the Tynker app. They should go to 'Projects', 'New Projects' and 'Animation'. Their first project will be the 'Costume Animation'. Show them how to follow through and 'remix' the animation via the tutorial. Explain to them that each tutorial section is a 'decomposition' of the final code.

• Many children will be successful in completing the tutorial. Where that is the case, they can have a go at the 'Dance Party' one. Any pupils showing a real appetite for challenge could try and start a 'New Project' and create a simple coded animation from scratch!

Key questions

• Is copying someone else’s work from the internet a good thing to do?

• What struggles did you have when completing your animation?

• How did you get over them?

• What do we mean by 'decomposition'?