scratch
gregladen | November 11, 2016I just received two books that I will be reviewing in more detail later, but wanted to let you know about now.
Coding Projects in Scratch: A step by step guide by DK Publishers is a new scratch coding book. I got a copy a couple of days ago and have been going through it, and found it to be excellent. I'll be including it in my Science Oriented Holiday Shopping Guide for Kids Stuff, which I'll have out soon, but I wanted to give you a heads up first. From the publishers:
Using fun graphics and easy-to-follow instructions, Coding Projects in Scratch is a straightforward, visual guide that…
gregladen | November 25, 2015I mention a couple of kids books in my overviews on Fossil and Evolution Books and Books about Climate Change. Here are a few excellent science and computer programming (aka coding) books for kids.
Geology book for kids
The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic: The Adventures of Geo, Vol. 1 is a good stab at making a comic that teaches some science.
We follow the adventures of Geo and his robotic dog, Rocky as the visit the ancient supercontinent of Pangea. This journey is pursuant to Geo's upcoming test in his geology class.
What is the center of the Earth made out of? How do volcanoes work?…
rallain | March 11, 2010I already went over a Monte Carlo method for estimating Pi - you know, for Pi-Day (March 14). Well, here is a small addition. This is the same thing done in Scratch.
If you create an account on Scratch, you can download the code of any project. I like Scratch.
edyong | August 7, 2009Itching is an unpleasant sensation that drives us to scratch reflexively in an effort to remove harmful substances from our body. It's also how I get most of my physical activity for the day. Not being able to scratch an itch is intensely frustrating and many scientists have long described itch as the milder cousin of pain.
But a team of scientists from Washington University's Pain Center (I wonder if they have problems with recruitment) have discovered a group of neurons in the spines of mice that are specific to itch but not to pain. Remove them, and mice hardly ever scratch when they're…
rallain | October 6, 2008Popular demand (from a few people - you know who you are) requested another level for the force game. I am open to naming this game. Ideas for levels have been suggested also. There is a new rule change. You must be stopped (or almost stopped) in the red circle.
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Update:
I guess I didn't include instructions on how to play the game. Just click on the applet window to make sure it is active. Press the space bar to start the game. Once the game starts the objective is to use rocket thrusters (the arrow keys) to move the rocket (the black rectangle) into the…
rallain | October 6, 2008I already said I like [scratch from MIT](http://scratch.mit.edu). After building a simple rocket model, the kids said it should be a game. I caved. Here it is:
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To play, press the space bar. The arrow keys are rocket thrusts. The goal is to get to the red circle in as little time. If you hit the wall or the sides, you start back at the green circle. Please forgive me masters of scratch (I know who you are - you find something to complain about in my program).
rallain | October 1, 2008I actually have some important things to do. However, I thought I would make another scratch program. Yes, this will all lead to something useful (that is what I told my wife). Anyway, in this program, I made a spaceship with 4 thrusters. The great thing about this is it show what forces do to the motion of an object. I already had a suggestion to make it into a game with a score.
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Use the arrow keys to turn on the 4 thrusters.
rallain | October 1, 2008I can't remember how I found this, but [Scratch](http://scratch.mit.edu) is a graphical programming language developed at MIT. My kids love this. In order to make sure they don't know more than I do, I created my own scratch program. I am sure someone from the scratch community will attack it for some reason, but I am ok with that.
The program shows a numerical calculation of the motion of a box with a constant force on it. You change the mass and the force. It "sort of" plots the position as a function of time. Don't worry python, I still think you are the best.
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