Superheroes, Code Competition and Scratch

A Coding competition for primary school aged children was recently launched; aimed at helping teachers to become more confident with teaching coding skills. Any educator working with primary scjool aged children  (e.g. Teacher, Code Club Leader, etc) can run the competition whether they are familiar with coding or completely new to it. All the session planning is done for you so you can learn alongside your pupils. The resources include 

- 12 weeks of lesson planning for absolute beginners (children and teachers!) 
or 
- shorter 6 week version for those who already have a little experience with using Scratch. 

The resources can be used for computing lessons or to run within an after-school club.

It is open for children in years 4, 5 and 6 working in teams of 3 - 6 children. 

The aim is to create a short computer game using Scratch featuring super heroes who use their super powers for good. To register for the competition and access all the resources click on this link 
http://bit.ly/YoungCoders2019 

For a bit of fun, I wondered what my solution would look like if I was using Scratch. Well, one of the coolest features in Scratch (along with speech-to-text; translation; controlling LEGO;...) is the video sensing. So my idea was to make the user the superhero by using a webcam and the user position on the screen to make falling rocks disappear when touched.

The code below controls the falling rocks, adding 1 to a counter when the person in the camera appears to touch the rock. 

The code below is attached to the stage and just sets up the initial conditions when the green flag is pressed.

If you want a copy of the code or to play with it go to: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/292925459/

To register for the competition and access all the resources click on this link 
http://bit.ly/YoungCoders2019  

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