Posts about Scratch

This project from chapter 2 of Coding and the Arts is all about finding inspiration in the art of others. This general idea can go in a million different directions

This project from chapter 2 of Coding and the Arts simulates an Etch-a-Sketch using the Scratch pen (or any other turtle graphics based programming environment).

This project is featured in chapter 3 of Coding and the Arts. In it, students use the music blocks in Scratch to sequence out simple melodies. Depending on the song used, this can also be a great place to practice iteration as students find repeating segments of a song and then use loops to recreate those patterns in code.

This chapter 3 project from Coding and the Arts goes best with as little structure as possible. You want students to have the freedom, time, and support to explore and experiment.

This project is featured in chapter 5 of Coding and the Arts.

I’m going to try something new here, so bear with me as we see how this works. When I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed I sometimes like to relax with a little creative coding; I just try to get something on the screen and poke around with the code until I find something that soothes me. I’m rarely building towards something specific in these moments, but I do like to explore functions and techniques that I haven’t used before, sometimes just picking a function at random from the documentation and seeing where it gets me. Because these coding sessions are more about the process for me than the actual creation, I don’t end up returning to most of these exploratory sketches. Occasionally, however, I come across something that really resonates with me from a creative perspective or helps me see a different angle to introduce a concept students. In these moments I would think to myself “maybe there’s a lesson hidden in here.”