Wednesday, May 25, 2016

May Meeting: Scratch and PicoBoards

We had a blast at Monday's meeting talking about all of the fantastical places Milo visits in The Phantom Tollbooth and then taking a stab at creating our own using Scratch. Two members of the MIT Media Lab's Scratch team attended the meeting and brought PicoBoards for us to try out. These little sensor boards allowed us to create coded interactions based on a button, a slider, a light sensor, and a sound sensor in addition to what is typically available within Scratch.

We got so invested in our work that we ran out of time, so I wasn't able to get videos of everyone's Scratch projects. I did get some pictures of the process (but not of Isaac who created a very cool hybrid cat-dog that spun around, among many other things), but you'll just have to take my word for it that the Bookshoppers came up with some awesome Milo-inspired projects by the end of our meeting.

Hard at work
Avery: fat man/thin man/tall man/short man controlled by the slider and the button
Chris: game where you use the slider to help Milo collect As and avoid Zs and bombs
Eli: game involving the slider and this sinister skeleton guy eventually changing colors and dissolving into a whirlpool effect
Stefan: slider controls Milo in his car zooming back and forth

Get excited for our last meeting of the school year on Monday, June 20th! Bring a book to share!