A Scratch Tutorial by Michael Badger
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Category — Scratch Tutorial

Scratch Tutorial – Lists, mod, if-else

This is chapter 7, Games of Fortune, from the book Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide.

In Scratch it is easy to create projects that
incorporate dynamic information using variables. However, variables
have a limitation; they store only one value at a time. Sometimes, we
want a variable to store multiple values.

Welcome to lists. In Scratch, a list allows us to associate one list
(a variable) with multiple items or values in much the same way we
create a list before going to the grocery store. In this article, we will take a trip to the fortune-teller to demonstrate lists, and you’ll learn how to:

  • Store and retrieve information in lists
  • Add and remove items from the lists
  • Keep track of items in a list by using a counter
  • Identify intervals using the mod block
  • Use if/else control blocks to make decisions

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November 5, 2009   No Comments

Scratch Programming – Sprites, Broadcasts, Community

This scratch tutorial is the second half of chapter 3 from the book, Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide. If you need a more advanced topic, check out my tutorial Scratch Programming Tutorial #3. Enjoy!

Each Scratch project contains sprites with costumes, scripts,
blocks, and a stage with backgrounds. In the first part, we built a couple of sample scripts to demonstrate how we can control the sprites in a project. For example, we used motion to move the sprites and forever loops to keep the sprite moving.

In this part of the article, we will use broadcast messages to coordinate the actions of multiple sprites. We will conclude this article by sampling and remixing projects from Scratch’s sample projects and from the Scratch web site.

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November 4, 2009   No Comments

Scratch Programming Introduction – The Basics

This Scratch tutorial is the first half of chapter 3 from the book, Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide. The tutorial introduces Scratch programming and the Scratch interface.

The anticipation of learning a new programming
language can sometimes leave us frozen on the starting line, not
knowing what to expect or where to start. In this two-part article, we will:

  • Take a tour of the Scratch interface
  • Create a couple of sample projects
  • Learn some basic Scratch programming concepts
  • Get our minds racing

Our specific objectives include:

  • Learning how to work with Scratch
  • Learning basic Scratch programming commands
  • Finding inspiration to fuel our creativity

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November 4, 2009   No Comments