Makey's Race

Using Scratch to Teach Event-Driven Coding Skills

Makey Makey Pool is a fun pool game that uses Scratch programming to teach students basic coding skills such as “if-statements” and “while loops”. The MaKey MaKey circuit board will be used in place of the computer mouse/keyboard mousepad. The project was created by Makey Your Shot, a group of students a part of the Technology Ambassadors Program at Georgia Gwinnett College.

The Technology Ambassadors Program is a program that offers students opportunities to learn more about technology, and helps them develop creativity, leadership, communication, and teamwork skills, while also giving them the opportunity to do community outreach. This project was created with the goal of attracting non-technical people to like and get excited about technology. The students that participate in the outreach events will be able to learn these basic coding skills through demonstrations and hands-on activities (making their own changes to the game).

Game Levels Short Demo

Team members

• Samuel Groom
• Asho Issak
• Johnson Ngao
• Taylor Williams

Outreach Activities:

1. TAP Expo, April 28, GGC – To promote IT field and the TAP program to college students
2. Class Workshops, April 9 and April 13 (2 workshops each day) - to promote IT field to non-IT college students

Project Information

• Difficulty Level: Medium
• Target Audience: 6th Grade - College
• Duration of workshop: 60-90 minutes
• Needed Materials: MakeyMakey circuit boards, objects to use as input devices for the MakeyMakey
• Learning outcomes: The primary goal of this project is to educate and create interest in the IT field for non STEM majors. By engaging in our workshops, students will create a pool game using block coding and using a MakeyMakey as a controller to learn about fundamental coding principles such as “if-statements” and “while-loops”.

Game Description

The project is used to educate others about “if-statements”, “while-loops”, and block coding by creating a fun pool game using Scratch. MakeyMakey is a circuit board that can use any object as an input device.

The workshop has three progressive levels:

1. Level 1: Program the White and Yellow ball to allow them to collide with each other.
2. Level 2: Program the rest of the balls to be able to collide with each other.
3. Level 3: Program the balls and obstacles to be able to make contact with each other.

Technology

• Scratch is a block-based visual programming language and website targeted primarily at children to help learn code concepts.
• MakeyMakey is a circuit board that can use any object as an input device, turning everyday objects into touchpads.

Similar Projects

• Monster Makey (Scratch with MakeyMakey and Audcity)
• Scratchathon (Scratch)
• Leap for Mankind (Scratch)
• NinjaTurtler (Scratch with Makey-Makey)
• Planimals (Scratch)
• LightUp (Scratch)

Project Setup/Installation

Guide to Use Scratch

Workshop Materials

• Workshop step-by-step
• Commented Code
• Workshop Powerpoint

Workshop Levels (Incomplete Code for Student Use)

• Level 1 - Yellow and White ball
• Level 2 - All balls
• Level 3 - Obstacles

Workshop Levels (Complete Code for Teacher Answer Key)

• Level 1 - Yellow and White Ball
• Level 2 - All balls
• Level 3 - Obstacles

Usage

Playing or Editing This Project

1. Download any of these files to play the level or make changes to it!
   • Level 1 - Program the White and Yellow ball to allow them to collide with each other
   • Level 2 - Program the rest of the balls to be able to collide with each other
   • Level 3 - Program the balls and obstacles to be able to make contact with each other
2. Click File and then Load from your computer to import the files from your computer
3. Click the green flag, read the instructions, and then press P to play!

Scratch Resources

Tutorials: Click here to watch tutorials of the many ways you can create a Scratch project.

Gallery