As part of the Computer Science Education week, you can celebrate with an hour of code using Scratch.
From the Harvard Graduate School of Education:
The Hour of Code is a one-hour, hands-on introduction to computer science. It is part of Computer Science Education Week, which is taking place December 9th to 15th. But your Hour of Code can happen before, during, or after CSEd Week — and you can easily tailor the activity to fit any time frame.
Scratch Day 2011 is approaching and that has me on the lookout for an event near me. I came across a fun game theme from the TechPlayZone in Riverview, Florida. The rules are simple, bring an original game, consisting of one sprite and one script to the event. The game and design must be original and it must be a win or lose theme.
Though I’m too far away from this event, I like the theme and the idea and will be filing this away in my workshop ideas.
Picoboards are a great way to extend Scratch’s interactivity and to stimulate Scratch projects. The Picobard can measure resistance, light, sound, button clicks, and slider position and communicate those values to Scratch for use in our computer programs.
In chapter 10 of Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide, I walk through programming examples for each Picoboard function. However, I just found the Science Buddies website that includes a few science projects that incorporate Scratch programming and the Picoboard:
Looks like some fun and educational uses that I will file away for my next available need.
Click here for Picoboard on Linux installation information.