Scratch

Carnival Games

Most everyone enjoys a carnival!  Some like the food--from cotton candy, to funnel cakes, to ice cream.  Others enjoy rides such as the carousel, Ferris wheel, and bumper cars.  Many like to test their skills in games like "Milk Bottle", "Balloon and Dart", and "Ring Toss".  One of the most well-know skill games is "High Striker", sometimes called "Ring the Bell" or "Strongman Game".  This game is commonly played by guys trying to impress girlfriends and wives with their macho strength.  In this game, a large mallet is used to strike one end of a lever.  Th

A Tactile Sensor ON/OFF ScratchX Switch

This lesson provides an example of how to ScratchX program PocketLab Voyager's tactile sensor as an ON/OFF switch.  If you have a device such as a light bulb, motor, or robot that is under control of ScratchX, then the code in this lesson may be a starting point for you.  The ScratchX program assumes that the device can be in any one of two possible states, which we will call ON and OFF.

Introduction

A theremin , named after its Russian inventor in the early 1900's, is an electronic musical instrument that is controlled without any contact by the musician.   Volume is controlled by moving one hand near one antenna, while pitch is controlled by moving the other hand near a second antenna.  The sound is generated by a pair of high-frequency oscillators.

What is a Theremin?

A theremin , named after its Russian inventor in the early 1900's, is an electronic musical instrument that is controlled without any contact by the musician.   Volume is controlled by moving one hand near one antenna, while pitch is controlled by moving the other hand near a second antenna.  The sound is generated by a pair of high-frequency oscillators.

Let's create a game in Scratch that is controlled by a wireless controller using the PocketLab accelerometer. PocketLab can connect directly and wirelessly to Scratch, and can send sensor data in real time. This game uses the PocketLab accelerometer to move sprites around the screen.

This program is for intermediate or advanced Scratch users, and if you would like a simpler starting point to get started with connecting Scratch to the outside world through PocketLab, you can start here:

This lesson will show you programming in Scratch with external sensors. We can read sensor data directly into Scratch and use it to write programs that make decisions based on what the sensors are measuring. If you need a quick primer on Scratch programming, go to this link. There are plenty of resources to get you started.

Download the Scratch .sbx file for a Space Blaster game you can play with Scratch and PocketLab. Works with PocketLab One and Voyager. 

Instructions to run ScratchX and the PocketLab web app are here.

The Space Blaster game is also featured in our PocketLab and Scratch STEM Coding Challenge - see attached pdf file for complete programming guide.

This lesson makes it possible for your students to study radioactive decay and half-life concepts without the need to purchase expensive radiation monitors and actual radioactive isotopes.  Scratch and Voyager work together to accomplish this via a simulation that matches that of true radioactive decay.  ScratchX is not required, but may be used.  The Scratch program provides the decay process.  With each decay of a simulated atom, the Scratch screen quickly flashes white and emits a beep sound similar to that of a typical Geiger counter.  Voyager’s light sensor records each of the decays a

We can create a way to make true random numbers in Scratch using the PocketLab Voyager's light sensor and a lava lamp. Sounds crazy? Not really, there is actually a US patent for such a system! It turns out that on their own, computers are not good at generating true random numbers, therefore to make true random numbers using a computer you need an external source of randomness.

This lesson introduces students to a variety of probability and statistics concepts using PocketLab Voyager and Scratch—ScratchX is not required.  The Scratch program simulates tossing any number of coins any number of times, displaying the number of heads in each toss with a square having varying shades of grey—black for zero heads and white for the maximum possible number of heads in each toss.  The simulated coins are tossed once each second with Voyager’s light sensor recording the results for each toss.