Scratch Fix It Projects

In class, we read the story "Unspotted Bugs", then built personal marble machines using noodles, marbles and tape. We learned that in computer coding "bugs" refer to mistakes in the code, and debugging is the process of finding and fixing bugs by going through your code step by step until you find the problem. We practiced finding "bugs" in our marble machine designs, tested and fixed our marble machines. Students recorded their thoughts in their "Think spot journals": what problems they encountered and how they fixed those problems working in small teams.

Next we read "Stevie and the Big Project" about Frustration and Persistence. We practiced self help and not giving up while creating a computer game following the step-by-step tutorial "Race to the Finish" on Scratch.mit.edu.

Finally, I asked the students to examine these simple programs, find the bugs and fix them.

Scratch coding - Fix these buggy programs (2nd & 3rd graders):

buggy program#1: Hello, Bear! https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/200271883/

buggy program#2: Buggy Race https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/196019727/