Explosions, cats, webcams and Scratch

Still enjoying playing with Scratch and webcam. in this post, initially improving on the example shown in a previous post Webcam and Scratch; enhancing the movement of Scratch the Cat by adding the interim step and facing in the direction of the 'moving finger' (see the code below).

Please go to the code at https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/263334488/ to try it yourself.

Going to add one more feature to experiment with getting objects to react to the motion. In this case to explode a button or change a button to a small ball by moving the finger onto the button. The motion on the sprite is used to do this.

Please try the code yourself at https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/266837380/

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

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Problem Solving Open educational Resource

Another new Open Education Resource (OER) has been made available by the School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton. Problem-Solving Author: Dr Scott Turner http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19001 Details These mini lectures are intended for undergraduate computing students, for providing simple steps in problem solving before the students learn a programming language. Problem-Solving and Programming is a common first year undergraduate module on the BSc Computing Programme at the University of Northampton. This material was taken from the problem solving part of the module and provides an introduction to five topics in problem-solving. The resource can be found at: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19001 After one week on JORUM 93 downloads and 12 views of the OER.

Problem-solving or computational Thinking

Confession time, this has been a research interest for me, along with a number of colleagues, since around 2005. It started with undergraduate students - investigating teaching and developing problem solving skills as a first step in developing programming skills through the use of LEGO-based robots and graphics based programming for undergraduate students. The main vehicle then for developing the problem-solving skills was the LEGO RCX Mindstorms robotics kits and series of gradually more challenging robot-based tasks. Lawhead et al (2003) stated that robots “…provide entry level programming students with a physical model to visually demonstrate concepts” and “the most important benefit of using robots in teaching introductory courses is the focus provided on learning language independent, persistent truths about programming and programming techniques. Robots readily illustrate the idea of computation as interaction”. Synergies can be made with our wo...

Computing in Northamptonshire: Gary Hill: solving problems

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Problem-solving

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