CS First and Scratch

Computer Science (CS) First is a program supported by Google that uses Scratch to teach block-based computer coding.

Storytelling with CS First and Scratch Programming - Week 3: June 22 - 26

CS First is a free program that increases student access and exposure to computer science (CS) education. In this camp you will create your own video games! Design and program your own video games using code and computer science. Campers use computer science to tell fun and interactive stories. Storytelling emphasizes creativity by encouraging club members to tell a unique story each day.

Game Design with CS First and Scratch Programming - Week 4: June 29 - July 2

CS First is a free program that increases student access and exposure to computer science (CS) education. In this camp you will create your own video games! Design and program your own video games using code and computer science. In Game Design, students learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and more!

To get started:

1. All club members must visit https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/s/en/home, click "Enter Club Code" and follow the directions to be assigned to your theme and club. New club members will receive a username and password. Returning club members may reuse their username and password.


Expectations on use of Hardware and Software:

1. We will use web-based resources so we will not need to save to the computer.

2. Only Software programs and sites we are actively working with may be used in camp.YouTube, Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite are not a part of this camp.

3. You will need to balance the amount of time that you explore with the amount of time you program your app. You MUST code/program more then you Play!

If you finish all of the lessons in CS First which means you have all of the badges and have completed all of the wrap ups, you can decide on what you want to do next.

Option 1 - Go to https://scratch.mit.edu/ideas and choose one or more of the tutorials to learn more about how to program with Scratch.

Option 2 - Under your profile you can see the themes you have completed. At the Top you can Press on See All Themes and work on any of the themes.

Option 3 - Work on remixing one of your favorite Scratch games to add your sprites, story, or programming to make it better.

Option 4 - Make Sprite Art by remixing or creating one of your own. Use this for inspiration https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/26622201/

Option 5 - Read about this Scratch user and how she started using it at age 11. https://scratch.mit.edu/users/ipzy/

Option 6 - Go to Challenge Galaxy https://www.challengegalaxy.com/challenges and find a challenge to complete in Scratch. Have the challenge open in one window and Scratch open in a different window.

More about Ipzy from the article by Katrina Schwartz at Mindshift. https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/17/mits-scratch-program-is-evolving-for-greater-more-mobile-creativity/

Mitch Resnick has been working on how to give students new avenues of creative expression for over a decade. His Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab develops Scratch, one of the most popular coding programs for kids, which is based on the seminal work of Seymour Papert, who died in 2016. When Resnick thinks about the guiding philosophy behind Scratch, he thinks of one of its users —Ipzy.

Ipzy started using Scratch at age 11. Ipzy — who goes by the gender neutral pronoun “they”* — loved to draw and heard that Scratch might help them animate their art. Ipzy’s first Scratch project was a simple animation where the eyes and ears of a drawing moved subtly. “You can almost see [Ipzy] here dipping [their] toe in the water of something new,” said Resnick during a presentation at the International Society for Technology in Education conference.

Over time Ipzy started making more complicated projects in Scratch. They created the Lemonade Time game in which players wander through a world gathering the ingredients to make lemonade. Ipzy started to become well-known in the Scratch online community as someone who made things other people liked, and people started asking if they could use Ipzy’s artwork in their projects. That led Ipzy to rebrand as Ipzy Studios, but they freely allowed others access to their artwork, with permission to modify, as long as they were credited.

“[Ipzy] was becoming a good citizen,” Resnick said. “In addition to sharing [their] artwork [they were] also beginning to share the things [they were] learning about programming.” Ipzy, like so many other kids passionate about a topic, began making tutorials about how they did things like make a scrolling background. They shared their code and commented on it to point out tricky things. And, Ipzy started to get comments and feedback, which they actively responded to, sometimes even changing a game or project by popular demand.

Free Time Fun:

Auto Draw - Start drawing and let the Artificial Intelligence guess what you are drawing. No account needed.

Quick Draw - Like Auto Draw - No account needed.

GeoGuesser - Try to figure out where you are in the world. - No account needed but would need to use a Google account if you wanted to share.

Chrome Music Lab - Learn more about music. - No account needed, but you must use headphones and keep volume low.

Google A Day - Use Google Searches to solve the questions.