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Scratch 2.0 Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours
- By Timothy L. Warner
- Published Jun 20, 2014 by Sams. Part of the Sams Teach Yourself series.
Book
- Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
About
Features
- Full-color, beautifully designed: the only Scratch book that's friendly, professional, and up-to-date
- Assumes absolutely no experience: guides students from getting started through programming logic, media, remixing, publishing, and advanced features
- Taps into the worldwide Scratch phenomenon, which has already attracted millions of new programmers of all ages in 150 countries
Description
- Copyright 2014
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-33709-6
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33709-3
In Full Color!
In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to make your own animations, games, simulations, and interactive stories with MIT Media Lab’s amazingly easy Scratch 2.0! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll walk through everything from joining the global Scratch community to adding audio/video and sensing the outside environment. You’ll learn to write reliable, efficient code and take advantage of millions of Scratch programs shared online. Every hands-on lesson builds upon what you’ve already learned, fully preparing you to create inspired projects of your own!
Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Scratch 2.0 programming tasks.
Quizzes at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.
Challenges give you the opportunity to extend upon what you’ve learned in each chapter and flex your new-found programming skills.
Notes present interesting information related to the discussion.
Tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.
Cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.
Learn how to…
- Create your first project
- Master basic features including the Stage, Backdrops, Sprites, and Costumes
- Make things happen with Motion blocks
- Add sophisticated logic without complicated coding
- Use audio and video you capture with a webcam or microphone
- Include your own drawings in your projects
- Sense what your game’s players are doing and interact with them
- Write programs that respond to outside changes such as temperature and touch
- Test your projects to find and fix problems
- Document and publish projects so others can help you improve them
- “Remix” projects with online Scratch code and content
- Create games with multiple game screens and button controls
- Master skills you can use with even the most powerful programming languages
- Brand new to programming: Welcome! You don’t need any prior experience with programming in order to gain value from this book.
- Considering a career change: Perhaps you are a K-12, junior college, or university student who has perhaps a bit of past programming experience, and you are pondering a full-time career as a software developer. Learning Scratch serves as an excellent diagnostic to gauge your aptitude and interest in the subject matter.
- Just tinkering: Maybe you are a technology buff who always wondered what work went into developing a software project. You have no real career aspirations in programming--you just enjoy tinkering and having fun.
Extras
Related Articles
Building a Game from Scratch, Part 1: Setting the Foundation
Building a Game from Scratch, Part 2: Coding the Game Logic
Sample Content
Online Sample Chapter
Using Looks Blocks in Scratch 2.0
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 5 and Index)
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Hour 1: What Is Scratch? 7
What Is an Educational Programming Language? 8
Understanding Scratch History 10
Creating Your Scratch Profile 14
Browsing the Scratch Websites 18
Previewing Popular Scratch Projects 21
Summary 23
Workshop 24
Challenge 25
Hour 2: Creating Your First Project 27
Navigating the Scratch Project Editor 27
Formally Introducing Scratch Blocks 34
Previewing Your Project 35
Using My Stuff 39
Summary 42
Workshop 42
Challenge 43
Hour 3: Working with Costumes and the Stage 45
Understanding Sprites 46
Adding and Managing Costumes 50
Understanding the Stage 52
Adding and Managing Backdrops 54
Let’s Assemble the Pieces, Shall We? 55
Summary 60
Workshop 60
Challenge 61
Hour 4: Using Motion Blocks 63
Getting to Know the Stage More Intimately 65
Bouncing Around the Stage 69
Tracking a Sprite to the Mouse 72
The Hour 4 Project: Drawing in Scratch 2.0 75
Summary 77
Workshop 77
Challenge 78
Hour 5: Using Looks Blocks 81
Getting to Know the Looks Blocks 81
Interacting with the Player 87
Getting Sprites to “Talk” to Each Other 90
Summary 94
Workshop 94
Challenge 95
Hour 6: Using Sound Blocks 99
Understanding Notes and MIDI Instruments 100
Understanding the Backpack 104
Playing the Drums! 105
Using the Sound Library 108
Recording and Editing Your Own Audio 110
Summary 116
Workshop 116
Challenge 117
Hour 7: Working with Pen Blocks 119
Getting to Know the Pen Blocks 120
Gaining Some Experience with the Pen Tools 123
Creating a Simple Drawing Program 126
Summary 134
Workshop 134
Challenge 135
Hour 8: Using Events Blocks 137
Understanding Events Blocks 137
Digital Versus Analog Events 139
Understanding Broadcasts 143
Watch Me Move! 149
Summary 153
Workshop 153
Challenge 154
Hour 9: Using Control Blocks 155
Introducing the Control Blocks 155
Testing Out Control Structures 159
Working with Clones 164
Summary 167
Workshop 168
Challenge 169
Hour 10: Using Operators Blocks 171
Becoming Familiar with the Operator Blocks 171
Performing More Complex Math 174
Integrating Operators into Your Scratch Projects 177
Summary 184
Workshop 184
Challenge 185
Hour 11: Using Sensing Blocks 187
Introducing Sensing Blocks 187
Delving Deeper into Sensing 192
Putting Together Everything You’ve Learned So Far 195
Summary 198
Workshop 198
Challenge 199
Hour 12: Using Data Blocks 201
What Are Variables? 201
What Are Lists? 207
Combining Variables and Lists 213
Summary 214
Workshop 214
Challenge 216
Hour 13: Using Cloud Data 217
What Is a New Scratcher? 218
Creating Cloud Variables 220
How to Post High Scores Using Cloud Data 226
More About Username 228
Summary 230
Workshop 230
Challenge 231
Hour 14: Adding Multimedia to Your Project 233
Adding Photos to Your Project 234
Adding Audio to Your Project 238
Adding Video to Your Project 243
What About Hyperlinks and Interactivity? 246
Summary 247
Workshop 247
Challenge 248
Hour 15: Creating Your Own Blocks 249
Spending Some Time with Layers 249
Understanding Custom Blocks 254
Creating Custom Blocks in Scratch 2.0 257
Building Your Own Blocks in Snap! 263
Summary 264
Workshop 265
Challenge 266
Hour 16: Documenting Your Project 267
Commenting Your Code 267
Working with Pseudocode 270
Wireframing and Storyboarding 274
Publicly Documenting Your Scratch Project 277
Summary 280
Workshop 280
Challenge 281
Hour 17: Publishing Your Project 283
Sharing Your Project 283
Project Documentation, Revisited 285
Interacting with Your Viewers Through Comments 286
Interacting with Other Scratchers on the Forums 291
Improving Your Project’s Visibility 294
Summary 296
Workshop 297
Challenge 298
Hour 18: Using the Scratch Offline Editor 299
A Bit of Scratch Version History 300
Introducing the Scratch 2.0 Offline Editor 301
Uploading and Downloading Assets 304
Understanding the Scratch File Format 307
Integrating Scratch 1.4 with Scratch 2.0 310
Converting Scratch Projects into Other Formats 311
Summary 315
Workshop 315
Challenge 316
Hour 19: Troubleshooting Your Project 317
Learning the Basics of Debugging 317
Resolving Common Scratch Script Errors 322
Accessing Code Block Help 326
Summary 328
Workshop 329
Challenge 330
Hour 20: Remixing a Project 331
The Importance of Attribution 332
Understanding the Remix Tree 334
How to Remix a Scratch Project 336
Remixing Part of Another Scratcher’s Project 338
Improving the Visibility of Your Remix 342
Summary 345
Workshop 346
Challenge 346
Hour 21: Creating Your Own Sprites and Backdrops 347
Introducing GIMP 347
Understanding Bitmap and Vector Graphics Modes 351
Creating a New Stage Backdrop 353
Creating a Custom Sprite--The Easy Way 357
Creating a Custom Sprite--The Difficult Way 359
Summary 362
Workshop 363
Challenge 364
Hour 22: Implementing Buttons and Multiple Screens 365
Working with Multiple Screens in Scratch 366
Creating Multistate Buttons 371
Wiring Up Buttons to Your Screens 376
Summary 378
Workshop 379
Challenge 380
Hour 23: Connecting Scratch to the Physical World 381
Setting Up Scratch 1.4 382
Introducing the PicoBoard 383
Introducing the MaKey MaKey 389
Summary 394
Workshop 394
Challenge 395
Hour 24: Capstone Project: Arcade Game 397
Introducing Dodgeball Challenge 397
Laying Out the Screens 400
Wiring Up the Screen Navigation 401
Building the Sprites 404
Adding the Main Game Logic 408
Testing and Tweaking the Project 409
Summary 411
Thanks, and Goodbye 411
Index 413