Finding different ways to bring Scratch into the classroom has been a focus for me this term! Not that we haven't found it interesting, or fun, but I have been looking for ways to build it into the curriculum and to make it something that can be (at least a bit) cross curricula..
So, for STEM week this year (the annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths focus – info here) I set our Year 6s and Digital Leaders a challenge – design a science quiz and build it in Scratch.
Use of Scratch for this required two new (for this group) skills:
- The 'variable' concept
- Debugging and quality assuring
The 'variable' concept becomes incredibly straightforward the minute you use it – on the online version it is 'data'. Put simply, create and name the variable (e.g score) and then, when certain answers are inputted, add to the variable.
Begin by using the 'condition' like in this example – 'if, else'
Then extend it by adding the instruction to change the variable:
All in all this took around three hours, and as I said the children were able to use Scratch slightly at the beginning. It is very simple, definitely, but the children were quickly able to find better ways of running quizzes. Using sprites, for example, as multiple choice buttons.
Here is an extension idea
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mpdxf6yupvsb3ni/MathsQuiz.sb?dl=0