7th Grade - OnShape and Scratch

In the first two periods we have been learning CAD drawing using a free online tool called OnShape. In period 7/8 we have been exploring Scratch to create an art history maze game.

OnShape

Students were directed to create a sketch and then make a three or four character word. Students could also use their initials or any combination of letters to make a school appropriate product.

We have been exploring two point perspective and we have created artwork using mechanical drawing tools. Now students are exploring how to do the same drawing using a digital medium.

Today we learned about two new tools in the drawing tool bar the Fillet tool, and the Snip tool. 

The Fillet tool:

To use this tool creates a curve using the tangent points of two intersecting lines.


The Snip tool:

This allows you to snip lines or points in your sketch.

Scratch

In Scratch we learned how to use several different blocks to control our program that we are making.

We have discussed in pseudo code (plain talking) how our program should run. We decided that we will have three backdrops to start. 

1. Intro - Introduces the title of the game
2. Directions - How does the user control or use the game?
3. Maze - This will be the main part of the game.

After some discussion our code for the Stage looks like this:

   Once the green flag is clicked we will first see the intro backdrop then we will wait two seconds, and then the directions will show. Here we will wait for user input.

The next block of code works like an If statement.
If the user presses the space key, then the backdrop changes to the maze and then sends a startGame message to all sprites.





Next we switched to our Sprites. On the Cat sprite we set the sprites position using the coordinates in the Scratch stage UI, and then we hid our sprite when the green flag was clicked.

To locate the position of your sprite simply look in the scripting area of your sprite (the right hand pane) and then look in the top right corner. It is sort of faded, but this is the exact location of your sprite on the stage.

Finally we needed a way to show our sprite when we switched to the maze backdrop. This was done by our broadcast block. When we receive the message startGame show the sprite.


As a challenge to students they were to expand upon how their sprite moves. They were to include an up movement and a down movement.