Create Fun Games and School Presentations Using Scratch 2.0
What you'll learn
- Create Fun and Interactive Games and School Presentations Using Scratch
Course content
- 08:49Setting Up Your Scratch Environment
- 11:26Understanding Sprites and Backdrops
- 07:09Scratch Coordinate and Rotation System
- 12:55Introduction to Scripting
- 05:18Working with Parameters in Blocks
- 06:01Motion and Sensing Project - Part 1
- 08:59Motion and Sensing Project - Part 2
- 08:35Motion and Sensing Project - Part 3
- 05:18Motion and Sensing Project - Part 4
Requirements
- We will be using the Scratch 2.0 Offline Editor that requires an Adobe Air plug-in. But don't install it yet as we will go over that in the first lecture. The students must have a PC or Mac. Tablets like the iPad or Galaxy will not work.
Description
ABOUT THIS COURSE
Learn the basic concepts, tools, and functions that you will need to build fully functional projects with the visual programming language, Scratch.
Build a strong foundation in Scratch and visual programming with this tutorial for beginners to intermediate learners.
-
Building code using command blocks
-
Using the coordinate system
-
Programming fundamentals
-
Real-life project examples
Content and Overview
Suitable for students age 7+, teachers, and parents who want to teach the fundamentals of visual programming to their children. Each section includes exercises, so you’ll be able to put your newly learned skills to immediate use. This is NOT a lecture about every single block in Scratch with a boring explanation! It challenges the user by going through real-life examples.
Starting with the installation of the free Scratch program and Adobe Air, this course will take you through the basic understanding of the coordinate and rotation system, motion and sensing, and character (sprite) manipulation. With the basics mastered, the course moves on to more advanced subjects including logic controls (if/then/else and forever loops), serial and parallel processing and dynamic interaction between sprites. By creating detailed projects, you’ll establish a strong understanding of programming concepts and how they work in Scratch. Upon completion of the course you will have the knowledge to create your own video games, educational tutorials, and presentations using Scratch. This is great for students who want to create powerful visual aids to complement an oral presentation or book report.
Why take this course instead of another?
Most importantly, my extensive programming background and knowledge of Scratch means that I know a LOT about the subject. And my teaching background means that I am able to pass this knowledge on to you in an easy-to-understand format.
This course contains more content and goes deeper into practical examples than others. It’s a great combination of practice and theory to help get you off and running your own project right away.
The step by step examples are key to understanding programming fundamentals – I don’t just teach you how to use Scratch, I teach you how to understand what you need to know to program on your own.
Unlike all the other Scratch videos available, this is NOT just a screen recording – this course contains detailed notes and diagrams within the video to enhance your learning and to help you remember key points throughout the course.
Who is the instructor and how knowledgeable are they?
Hi, I’m Santanu Das and I’ve been programming for over 25 years in C++, C, FORTRAN, Java, and others. As a teaching assistant, I taught C++ at MIT (where Scratch was created) to some of the most brilliant students in the world while getting my degree in engineering. Currently, I manage over 800 software developers at one of the largest private software companies in the world. Over the past few years, I have been teaching a Scratch class to 3rd graders at my son’s elementary school so I have firsthand experience on common stumbling blocks while learning Scratch. I teach Scratch because I want to encourage young people to improve their logic and decision making skills, to encourage STEM in the classroom, and to help people understand the creation of the video games that they play. I believe that programming builds a solid foundation for many other disciplines, including music and liberal arts, as well as science, technology, engineering and math. I DON’T teach the class for additional income. The course fee goes to producing more Scratch tutorials and funding local STEM Grant programs for schools throughout the US. Whether you want to be an engineer, a doctor, an accountant or an educator, Scratch strengthens your decision making, organizational and math skills at any level.
WHAT'S IN THE COURSE?
-
Over 27 lectures and close to 2.5 hours of content
-
Explains the fundamentals of programming, command blocks, and the coordinate system, essential knowledge you will find makes it much easier to create your projects
-
I explain how to overcome common obstacles that users encounter, by making mistakes as we go and going back to fix them as you follow along.
-
You will have a great understanding of how to use both basic AND advanced programming blocks and commands
-
Contains 4 great project examples that can be used to build almost any type of video game/app
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Students must have a PC or a Mac. Scratch is not yet supported on tablet devices.
Install the free Scratch software onto your computer and you are ready to go. Adobe Air (a free plug-in) is also required, and installation instructions are provided.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This class is not just for people who are interested in computer programming – it’s for anyone who would like to sharpen their logic and decision-making skills.
Of course, if you are interested in computer programming and want to learn the fundamentals, take this course! It is geared for ages 7+ (second graders and up). It is a great introduction to programming/coding for students of all ages.
This course is also a great primer for teachers who would like to teach programming and have their students submit Scratch projects as part of their curricula. Includes example of how kids can use Scratch to create a unique ‘visual aid’ for a classroom project. This course is used at local elementary schools to teach students Scratch.
Perfect for kids who want to learn how to create their own video games, and parents who want to learn how to assist their kids in building their programming and coding skills.
Who this course is for:
- This Scratch course is for elementary, middle and high school students and their teachers/parents who are looking to understand basic programming using a popular visual block coding environment called Scratch. No prior programming knowledge is required.
Instructor
![Santanu Das](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.8 Instructor Rating
- 46 Reviews
- 254 Students
- 1 Course
Santanu Das received his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1995 (graduating the top of his class) and was awarded a full graduate scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught numerical methods and object-oriented programming (C and C++) to engineers. After college, Santanu worked in the finance industry and in particular, the options market.
In 1998, Santanu joined Research Engineers International as a senior programmer and helped transform the world-renowned STAAD structural line of products into an open architecture platform where other applications could seamlessly integrate. As the company grew, he was responsible for setting up direct sales offices in Southeast Asia and helped create a large reseller channel to take the STAAD product line global in addition to setting up private, authorized training centers. Sales grew from $3MM/yr to $9MM/yr during this transition.
In 2001, Santanu helped start a new document collaboration and ASP (Application Service Provider) company for engineers called Web4. This company was strategically positioned to help automate an engineer’s workflow including managing RFIs, change orders, clash detections, markup, document revision and management and real time Web-based collaboration. Web4 was aimed at mid-sized discrete manufacturing companies looking to implement a web-based PLM solution. In 2002, Santanu merged Web4 with Research Engineers (then a public company) and became the new Chief Operating Officer. The company was renamed to netGuru, a publically listed company on the NASDAQ. At its peak, netGuru generated over $40MM in revenues and was involved in IT services, document management, engineering analysis and VoIP services to India.
After selling Research Engineers to Bentley Systems in 2005 and Web4 to another public company in 2006, Santanu currently serves as Senior Vice President of the Design and Simulation group where he helps manage over $300MM in revenues. In his spare time, Santanu teaches Scratch programming at local schools where his kids attend and hosts some killer Scratch parties from time to time!