Sreenidhi

In this online course, students get to learn about ScratchJr, a block programming language and do several fun projects/activities. ScratchJr is a free programming language that is available as an app, that can be run on iPads, Android tablets, Amazon tablets, and Chromebooks. Students will be able to connect programmed blocks together to create an actual animated scene. The course starts with the first lesson which familiarizes the basic concepts and features of the app and progresses toward modifying the characters and making them move. The course culminates in making a fun Astronaut Escape Game/Movie! No prior coding experience is necessary. I have designed this course to be a step-by-step learning process in ScratchJr, so I have 6 classes, that each discusses the distinct features of ScratchJr. Each class we will be doing a project to learn about it. This class also recommends the use of any tablets/iPads/Chromebooks since the app will not run on laptops/desktops (we don't have a web-based version of ScratchJr released yet). Students will have to have the app installed on their devices prior to the first class to help facilitate learning faster. Please visit https://www.scratchjr.org/ to download the app.

Microsoft MakeCode is a free opensource programming platform. It allows users to create programs using blocks for a variety of hardware devices like the Tinkergen GameGo, Brainpad Arcade, Lego Mindstorms EV3, micro:bit, etc. MakeCode Arcade allows block-programming for retro arcade games. Hardware devices like Tinkergen GameGo, Brainpad Arcade, Kittenbot Meowbit, etc can be used as handheld gaming devices with the code downloaded on to them. Students can alternatively see the same results on the on-screen emulator that MakeCode Arcade provides. MakeCode Arcade allows switching between block-based programming as well as text-based coding in JavaScript and Python. Students will be able to see how their block code looks like, in JavaScript and Python by using this feature. With MakeCode Arcade's game editor, any kind of retro games can be brought to life. A Microsoft user account is not needed for this. Projects are stored locally in your browser's storage. Please visit https://arcade.makecode.com/ to take a look at the programming environment that we will be using.