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Super Scratch Programming Adventure!
Scratch is the wildly popular educational programming language used by millions of first-time learners in classrooms, libraries, and homes worldwide. By dragging together colorful blocks of code, kids quickly learn computer programming concepts and make cool games and animations.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 29, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 8, 2020
I liked the last chapter, it was great, where Scratch found himself as an evil wizard or something.
[Dad's note: we need to go through the actual programming portions and not just the comics]
[Dad's note: we need to go through the actual programming portions and not just the comics]
November 9, 2012
A good, interesting learn-how-to-program book aimed not just at children but also adults new to the art of programming.
Programming need not be difficult and need not be restricted to 'hunting and pecking' at the keyboard, wondering why the computer refuses to PRINT 'HELLO WORLD". Using Scratch, a graphical based programming language that requires minimal keyboard skills, young children (and not so young adults) can learn to appreciate the art of programming.
Using a comic strip to pose a series of programming challenges, the book gradually introduces the reader to the Scratch environment, to create images and to drag-and-drop Scratch constructs to quickly get programs up and running.
Starting with simple ideas like getting a sprite to move about a screen, the challenges in the book get more complicated as the user is taught how to control sprites using the keyboard and mouse, how to animate sprites, how to make sprites detect and react to other sprites, play sounds, etc.
By the end of the book, you should be ready to go and make your own Scratch programs or explore and modify those already provided with Scratch or found on the Scratch web site.
But as in all books, especially programming books, occasional minor errors can be found. Some of the x-y locations or labels given in the programs do not match the expected results. However, by then, you should be good enough in Scratch to be able to see the errors and correct them.
In a way, this is an extra challenge; to be able to correct the errors found in the book and gives you an extra sense of accomplishment.
Recommended for young children (and adults) who want to learn programming. Due to the occasional errors, it is best that young children are guided through the programs so that as the errors are encountered, the children can be made aware of them and can work out how to correct the errors.
Programming need not be difficult and need not be restricted to 'hunting and pecking' at the keyboard, wondering why the computer refuses to PRINT 'HELLO WORLD". Using Scratch, a graphical based programming language that requires minimal keyboard skills, young children (and not so young adults) can learn to appreciate the art of programming.
Using a comic strip to pose a series of programming challenges, the book gradually introduces the reader to the Scratch environment, to create images and to drag-and-drop Scratch constructs to quickly get programs up and running.
Starting with simple ideas like getting a sprite to move about a screen, the challenges in the book get more complicated as the user is taught how to control sprites using the keyboard and mouse, how to animate sprites, how to make sprites detect and react to other sprites, play sounds, etc.
By the end of the book, you should be ready to go and make your own Scratch programs or explore and modify those already provided with Scratch or found on the Scratch web site.
But as in all books, especially programming books, occasional minor errors can be found. Some of the x-y locations or labels given in the programs do not match the expected results. However, by then, you should be good enough in Scratch to be able to see the errors and correct them.
In a way, this is an extra challenge; to be able to correct the errors found in the book and gives you an extra sense of accomplishment.
Recommended for young children (and adults) who want to learn programming. Due to the occasional errors, it is best that young children are guided through the programs so that as the errors are encountered, the children can be made aware of them and can work out how to correct the errors.
February 24, 2013
I started using this book in class last week to do some walk-through demos. So far it is excellent. It provides some simple projects in Scratch that I can demonstrate on the big screen, and I have all of the students follow along with me so they can try each stage of development. It is a very good way to demonstrate the process of writing a program while at the same time giving them something to play with at the end. Each project will then be a jumping-off point for a small project that each student will do on their own. Recommended.
December 28, 2012
This is a beautiful book. For teaching kids Scratch, it is the perfect little book. Pedagogically, the book is almost beyond reproach, introducing new concepts in a sensible manner, step-by-step.
It even goes beyond simple programming by adding bonus projects. I was impressed by the optional project involving a PicoBoard: you can make your program interact with a light sensor.
Disclaimer: I got a free review copy from the publisher.
It even goes beyond simple programming by adding bonus projects. I was impressed by the optional project involving a PicoBoard: you can make your program interact with a light sensor.
Disclaimer: I got a free review copy from the publisher.
May 28, 2014
This is an excellent introduction to Scratch, and even without being able to use the image files intended for the projects, the programming logic still works (and the games are actually kind of fun to play too).
February 21, 2015
I know kids who enjoy online tutorials on code.org. I'm happy to be able to introduce them to coding through a book too! This book also might convert a book lover who otherwise doesn't seem interested in coding. (Requires interactively following along on the computer while reading.)
March 6, 2013
It's of the school of learning by doing (and the instructions are there and it is totally GUI programming, but then again one has to start somewhere....
September 1, 2016
Fabulous. I own it. The book covers a lot of material - very in-depth programming with Scratch.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews