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Scratch 2.0 Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours

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Scratch 2.0 Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours

Book

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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
Who Should Read This Book
  • 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. 
If you find that you don’t belong in any of the previous three classifications, then don’t worry about it. Set your sights on learning as much as you can and, above all else, having fun, and you’ll be fine!

Downloads

Downloads

Solution Files, Part 1 (97.5 MB .zip)

Solution Files, Part 2 (59.3 MB .zip)

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

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