Scratch is an open-source application developed at MIT to teach students as young as five years old to program using drag and drop blocks. Your students can quickly create interactive animations, games, or presentations for school. We will uncover an often overlooked feature of Scratch and integrate external sensors and inputs through our PicoBoard. Learn to build data collection, graphing, and visualization in Scratch!

1. http://sfe.io/r74 @sparkfun #nsta14
Using graphing / data visualization as a
Playground for Literacy and Mathematics

2. Scratch-ing the Surface of
Programming and Enhancing Science
Using graphing as a
Playground for Literacy and
Mathematics

3. Brian Huang, Linz Craig, Derek Runberg
learn.sparkfun.com
brian.huang@sparkfun.com
@bri_huang @sparkfun

4. Pause…
Before we move any further, let’s make sure that
we all know each other in this room?
Please introduce yourself to the person(s) sitting in
your general vicinity. Tell them a few things about
yourself, maybe:
– where you’re from
– what you teach
– why you’re here
– what you hope to get out of this….

5. Schedule
• Introduction to Scratch, History
• A few basic functions
• Draw and graph
• PicoBoard
• Adding more functions

6. About Us
At SparkFun, our focus is all about creation,
innovation, and sharing information.
Open Source Hardware is at the core of our
business. We emphasize researching, re-
mixing, adapting, making improvements, and
sharing with the world!

10. “ Teacher s t hat make…
Make gr eat t eacher s”
-Anonymous

11. Scratch?
• MIT Media Lab / Life-long
Kindergarten Lab
• Out growth of Seymour Papert

12. A few things..
• Free, http://scratch.mit.edu
– Download version 1.4
• Open source
• Create games, animations, & interactive environments
• Interfaces with hardware: Picoboard, Makey Makey

13. Elements Vocabulary
• Sprite / Costume
• Stage / Background
• Script / Blocks

16. The stage is a background
or a “back-drop” for your
project..
You can paint, import, or
take a photo as your
background.
Multiple backgrounds may
be used to create
different scenes for a
story or levels in a game.

17. Grid space for the stage is
setup with a standard
Cartesian coordinate
system.
The origin - (0,0) is in the
center.
Extents are:
X: -240 to +240
Y: -180 to +180

18. Attributes of the sprite and the stage can be
manipulated using a script or set of
instructions.
A script consists of a set of blocks that are
“strung” together.
Blocks are organized into 8 separate “bins” by
how it affects the sprite →

19. 1. Modify your Sprite /
Costume and the Stage /
Background.
2. Use any of the 8 blocks (or
copies of the blocks) to
introduce yourself to the
class.
3. Right-click on any block and
select duplicate to make a
copy.

20. General Usage Tips

21. A basic function

22. Cloning..

23. Creating a sprite
The paint tools in Scratch are standard

24. Pretty neat, eh?

25. Hat Blocks
Hat blocks all start with the
key word “when”
Hat blocks define the
beginning of a script.
Any blocks attached to this
will execute (run) when the
event XXXX occurs.

26. So, why Scratch?
What else can it do?
• Presentations
• Animations / Simulations
And...

27. GRAPHING!

28. Paint a simple sprite –
just for data

29. Initialize the position of the
sprite
Recall: Grid space is
X: -240 to +240,
Y: -180 to +180

30. Introduce a loop or “forever”
Blocks can be placed
inside the “forever”
bracket.
Any and all code blocks
inside this will repeat
over and over…
forever…

31. Pen feature(s)
As the sprite moves across
the screen, it can place a
“pen” down to trace it’s
motions.
This feature can be used to
sketch simple shapes, plan
out maps, or graph data…

32. Setting up the pen to
draw
Rationale / pseudo-code:
•Start / go to origin
•Clear screen
•Pen down
– Increase x
– Repeat

33. Adding a “y” control
For fun, let’s tie the y-axis
to the mouse
(notice that the blocks are of
different colors…)

34. Reset when it hits the end
“If this, then that…”

35. “If this, then that…”

36. Adding Sensors (PicoBoard)

37. Using the sensors
• Right click or ctl click for the menu

38. A little math…
Sensor readings range: 0 – 100.
Scale the number to fit our widow using two
points: sensor = 0, y = -180 ; sensor = 100, y = +180

39. Math operators / order of operations:

40. Explore other sensors…
Add a second sprite & second line?

41. Advanced – Timing and data output
Introduce timer object  reports # of seconds
from start of program or since the “reset timer”
block was called.

42. Advanced – Timing and data output
Scaling the timer  480 pixels (points) in the x-
direction.

43. Creating a data list

44. Creating a data list

45. Finale

46. Right-click on the data list and…

47. Now what?
• Interested in professional development? Want to
learn more?
– Check-out our SparkFun Inventor’s Kit (SIK)
– Also sold as a lab-pack for schools
– 15 complete circuits with a full-color experiment guide.
– Guide is available as a PDF.
• Teacher Prof. Dev Workshops available:
– Contact: education@sparkfun.com

48. Questions?
email: brian.huang@sparkfun.com
twitter: @bri_huang, @sparkfun, #nsta14
Interested in any of this?
E-mail us about our 20% educator discount –
eservice@sparkfun.com