Coding Platforms

6. Go to Learn on the Code website or use the shortcut https://studio.code.org/courses.

7. In the Studio, you will see three different pathways for students. If you have some basic skills in programming, you will want to go to any of the three pathways and choose a lesson. If you are a beginner, you will want to try one of the Hour of Code activities which will take just one hour.

8. Go to https://code.org/learn. Choose beginner and then an activity that sounds like fun to you. Frozen and Minecraft are two good ones to start with. You can watch a short video and then begin to drag and drop the prompts (blocks) to code and run the activity. The prompts allow you to turn left or right, and move backward or forwards. As you get into more advanced programming the prompts will be more complicated. 

In just one hour you will have completed a project and learned the basics of coding.

As you can see in the Anna and Elsa example it starts out with moving forward by 100 pixels and turning right at 90 degrees. You can change the amount of both and see what happens!

When you are done writing your first line of code you may see something like this:  

• moveForward(100); turnRight(90); moveForward(100); turnRight(90); moveForward(100); turnRight(90); moveForward(100); 
• The code above makes Anna walk in a square

Your first lesson is going to be very basic, but know that what you have done is the same thing a programmer would have had to have done to prompt a game piece to move in a square. The commands are in drag and drop mode using blocks to teach you programming in Code.org, but the commands are the same that a programmer would use. 

9. There are several other FREE resources that can be very basic or advanced depending on what level you start out at. Go to the next section, expand it and learn about Scratch. 

Scratch was invented at MIT and is a free program that can be used on the Internet or download to use offline. With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and it is provided free of charge.

10. Begin by watching this less than two-minute video and you will be programming immediately with Scratch. 

11. Go to the Scratch website. You may want to start with the online tutorial if you need more assistance after watching the introductory video. 

12. Create a login and password for Scratch. 

13. Go to Create on the Menu Bar. When the page opens, on the right you will see the Sprite and his actions once you begin programming him to do things. You drag the command blocks to program the Sprite. To see him begin to move, just click on the green flag. 

14. Try out all the commands from Motion to More Blocks. Note the numbers in the blocks. These can be changed to the number of steps or degrees you would like the Sprite to move or do. You can also choose Costumes and Sounds. You can also change your Sprite from a cat to another character if you wish. Click on the icon next to New Sprite and a Sprite library will open with 100's of choices. 

15. After you have played and have programmed the Sprite to do various things, go to the Activity Cards from MIT and choose one Activity Card to complete to share with your instructor. 

16. You will need to be logged in to see the Share button in the upper right-hand corner. Type in notes to explain how to use your project when prompted. Once you have clicked on the Share button, if you look at the URL, you will see that it has been assigned a number. You will share the Scratch project URL with your instructor.