In Full Color!In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to make your own animations, games, simulations, and interactive stories with MIT Media Lab's amazingly easy Scratch 2.0! Using this book's straightforward, step-by-step approach, you'll walk through everything from joining the global Scratch community to adding audio/video and sensing the outside environment. You'll learn to write reliable, efficient code and take advantage of millions of Scratch programs shared online. Every hands-on lesson builds upon what you've already learned, fully preparing you to create inspired projects of your own!Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Scratch 2.0 programming tasks.Quizzes at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.Challenges give you the opportunity to extend upon what you've learned in each chapter and flex your new-found programming skills.Notes present interesting information related to the discussion.Tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.Cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.Learn how to...

Introduction 1Hour 1: What Is Scratch? 7 What Is an Educational Programming Language? 8 Understanding Scratch History 10 Creating Your Scratch Profile 14 Browsing the Scratch Websites 18 Previewing Popular Scratch Projects 21 Summary 23 Workshop 24 Challenge 25 Hour 2: Creating Your First Project 27 Navigating the Scratch Project Editor 27 Formally Introducing Scratch Blocks 34 Previewing Your Project 35 Using My Stuff 39 Summary 42 Workshop 42 Challenge 43 Hour 3: Working with Costumes and the Stage 45 Understanding Sprites 46 Adding and Managing Costumes 50 Understanding the Stage 52 Adding and Managing Backdrops 54 Let's Assemble the Pieces, Shall We? 55 Summary 60 Workshop 60 Challenge 61 Hour 4: Using Motion Blocks 63 Getting to Know the Stage More Intimately 65 Bouncing Around the Stage 69 Tracking a Sprite to the Mouse 72 The Hour 4 Project: Drawing in Scratch 2.0 75 Summary 77 Workshop 77 Challenge 78 Hour 5: Using Looks Blocks 81 Getting to Know the Looks Blocks 81 Interacting with the Player 87 Getting Sprites to "Talk" to Each Other 90 Summary 94 Workshop 94 Challenge 95 Hour 6: Using Sound Blocks 99 Understanding Notes and MIDI Instruments 100 Understanding the Backpack 104 Playing the Drums! 105 Using the Sound Library 108 Recording and Editing Your Own Audio 110 Summary 116 Workshop 116 Challenge 117 Hour 7: Working with Pen Blocks 119 Getting to Know the Pen Blocks 120 Gaining Some Experience with the Pen Tools 123 Creating a Simple Drawing Program 126 Summary 134 Workshop 134 Challenge 135 Hour 8: Using Events Blocks 137 Understanding Events Blocks 137 Digital Versus Analog Events 139 Understanding Broadcasts 143 Watch Me Move! 149 Summary 153 Workshop 153 Challenge 154 Hour 9: Using Control Blocks 155 Introducing the Control Blocks 155 Testing Out Control Structures 159 Working with Clones 164 Summary 167 Workshop 168 Challenge 169 Hour 10: Using Operators Blocks 171 Becoming Familiar with the Operator Blocks 171 Performing More Complex Math 174 Integrating Operators into Your Scratch Projects 177 Summary 184 Workshop 184 Challenge 185 Hour 11: Using Sensing Blocks 187 Introducing Sensing Blocks 187 Delving Deeper into Sensing 192 Putting Together Everything You've Learned So Far 195 Summary 198 Workshop 198 Challenge 199 Hour 12: Using Data Blocks 201 What Are Variables? 201 What Are Lists? 207 Combining Variables and Lists 213 Summary 214 Workshop 214 Challenge 216 Hour 13: Using Cloud Data 217 What Is a New Scratcher? 218 Creating Cloud Variables 220 How to Post High Scores Using Cloud Data 226 More About Username 228 Summary 230 Workshop 230 Challenge 231 Hour 14: Adding Multimedia to Your Project 233 Adding Photos to Your Project 234 Adding Audio to Your Project 238 Adding Video to Your Project 243 What About Hyperlinks and Interactivity? 246 Summary 247 Workshop 247 Challenge 248 Hour 15: Creating Your Own Blocks 249 Spending Some Time with Layers 249 Understanding Custom Blocks 254 Creating Custom Blocks in Scratch 2.0 257 Building Your Own Blocks in Snap! 263 Summary 264 Workshop 265 Challenge 266 Hour 16: Documenting Your Project 267 Commenting Your Code 267 Working with Pseudocode 270 Wireframing and Storyboarding 274 Publicly Documenting Your Scratch Project 277 Summary 280 Workshop 280 Challenge 281 Hour 17: Publishing Your Project 283 Sharing Your Project 283 Project Documentation, Revisited 285 Interacting with Your Viewers Through Comments 286 Interacting with Other Scratchers on the Forums 291 Improving Your Project's Visibility 294 Summary 296 Workshop 297 Challenge 298 Hour 18: Using the Scratch Offline Editor 299 A Bit of Scratch Version History 300 Introducing the Scratch 2.0 Offline Editor 301 Uploading and Downloading Assets 304 Understanding the Scratch File Format 307 Integrating Scratch 1.4 with Scratch 2.0 310 Converting Scratch Projects into Other Formats 311 Summary 315 Workshop 315 Challenge 316 Hour 19: Troubleshooting Your Project 317 Learning the Basics of Debugging 317 Resolving Common Scratch Script Errors 322 Accessing Code Block Help 326 Summary 328 Workshop 329 Challenge 330 Hour 20: Remixing a Project 331 The Importance of Attribution 332 Understanding the Remix Tree 334 How to Remix a Scratch Project 336 Remixing Part of Another Scratcher's Project 338 Improving the Visibility of Your Remix 342 Summary 345 Workshop 346 Challenge 346 Hour 21: Creating Your Own Sprites and Backdrops 347 Introducing GIMP 347 Understanding Bitmap and Vector Graphics Modes 351 Creating a New Stage Backdrop 353 Creating a Custom Sprite--The Easy Way 357 Creating a Custom Sprite--The Difficult Way 359 Summary 362 Workshop 363 Challenge 364 Hour 22: Implementing Buttons and Multiple Screens 365 Working with Multiple Screens in Scratch 366 Creating Multistate Buttons 371 Wiring Up Buttons to Your Screens 376 Summary 378 Workshop 379 Challenge 380 Hour 23: Connecting Scratch to the Physical World 381 Setting Up Scratch 1.4 382 Introducing the PicoBoard 383 Introducing the MaKey MaKey 389 Summary 394 Workshop 394 Challenge 395 Hour 24: Capstone Project: Arcade Game 397 Introducing Dodgeball Challenge 397 Laying Out the Screens 400 Wiring Up the Screen Navigation 401 Building the Sprites 404 Adding the Main Game Logic 408 Testing and Tweaking the Project 409 Summary 411 Thanks, and Goodbye 411 Index 413