Lesson video

Hello everybody, this is Francis here.

Welcome to computing.

It's really great to see you.

I hope that you are as excited as I am to work on some programming today.

Are you ready? Then let's get started.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to design an algorithm and follow it to create a programme.

Let's go through the keywords for today's lesson.

We're going to do my turn and your turn.

So that means that I'm going to say the keyword.

Then you're going to say the keyword nice and loud.

And then I want you to listen really carefully as I explain what the keyword means.

Okay, here we go.

First word, my turn, design.

Your turn.

That's great.

A design is a plan for what you want your programme to do.

Next word.

My turn, appropriate.

Your turn.

That's great.

Appropriate means a choice that fits the design.

Next word.

Here we go.

My turn, algorithm.

Your turn.

That's great.

An algorithm is a set of instructions that can be followed by a human, which can be used to make a programme.

Right.

Next word.

Here we go.

My turn, speed.

Your turn.

That's great.

The speed is how fast or how slow a sprite moves.

In the first part of the lesson, we will be designing a project.

Are you ready? Let's go.

You'll be designing your own space rocket project.

There will be a race between three rockets.

The rockets will all travel in the same direction, but they will get to the destination at different times.

And you can see in my image here I have got three different coloured rockets.

You'll be designing your project by thinking about the choices you can make and then recording your ideas.

Planning helps you sort out your ideas and decide what you want to create before you start.

Making a design helps you make appropriate choices.

You might have heard some keywords there, so I'm gonna say them again.

We have got the keyword design and we've got the keyword appropriate.

On the side here in the frame, that is an example of the planning sheet for this project.

Do you see the big rectangular box and then the smaller rectangular boxes next to it? That is our planning sheet.

You will need to choose the background and sprites.

Your choices must be appropriate.

They must match the space theme.

Aisha says, "What if I change what I have designed?" Jacob says, "What if I made something different from my design?" It is okay if your project ideas change from your original design.

That is all part of the planning process.

The design is to help you get ideas and be creative.

Let's do a check here.

True or false? Designing on paper will slow my project down, true or false? Pause the video here and have a think about your answer.

Well done for thinking about your answer here.

Let's see what the answer is, true or false, designing on paper will slow my project down.

The answer is false.

Why? Designing on paper makes programming projects better.

It helps to sort out your ideas and decide what you want to create before you start.

For this project, you will be planning your project on paper.

You are going to think of some ideas for your design.

You can draw or make notes about your ideas if you want to.

Let's look at some parts of the project together.

Which backgrounds are appropriate? That's one of our key words, appropriate.

Appropriate means that the choice matches the design of the project.

So, our theme is the space race.

So let's have a look at which backgrounds we've got here.

The first background is the stage, kind of like in a hall or at a theatre.

The second background is set on the moon with the earth in the background.

Our third one looks like it is in space.

We can see a planet and a small moon.

And the fourth background is underwater.

Which background do you think you would choose for this project? Which backgrounds are appropriate? Pause the video now and have a think about that.

Well done for thinking about the backgrounds.

Let's move on and see which ones you could choose.

These choices are appropriate for a space race project.

Well done if you got that right.

So we have selected the two space backgrounds to choose from.

How do you want your sprites to look? You will be able to colour in your sprites in a later step, but it's a good idea to think about now which three colours or which three styles you want to make your rocket sprites look like.

How will your race work? Think about where will the sprites start, how will they move and where will they stop? So just because the rockets are lined up along the bottom of my image, your rockets don't have to start in the same way.

They could be pointing in a different direction, they could be moving in different directions.

So it's up to you.

You've got some decisions here to make about how your race will work.

An algorithm is a set of clear instructions that can be followed by a human, which can be used to make a programme.

In your plan, you will create an algorithm that shows how you want your sprites to move.

And we have an example of an algorithm here.

We have got the word start.

Then we've got the symbols pointing up.

So we've got three arrows going, move up, move up, move up.

And then we have end.

So that is how you can read this algorithm.

To make the race exciting, we can make the sprites move at different speeds.

The speed is how fast or slow a sprite moves.

And if you watch my animation here, you can see all my sprites are moving at different speeds.

Let's do a check now.

A clear set of ordered steps that can be followed by a human to do a task is called A, a programme.

B, a sprite.

Or C, an algorithm.

Pause the video now and think about your answer.

Well done for thinking about your answer.

Let's go through and see what that answer is.

A clear set of ordered steps that can be followed by a human to do a task is called A, a programme.

B, a sprite.

Or C, an algorithm.

The answer is C, an algorithm.

Well done if you got that right.

This is how a speed block looks in the ScratchJr programme.

You can see I've highlighted it here for you.

It is an orange block.

You can draw the speed in your algorithm like this.

So I've drawn the symbol that matches how the symbol looks on the speed block and it is in my algorithm over there.

In Scratch Jr, there are three speeds, slow, medium, and fast.

So we've got slow, medium, and fast.

You can write them in your algorithm like this.

We've got slow, medium, and fast.

All right, we're gonna get ready to do a task now.

Step one says, on your design sheet, do a quick sketch of your chosen background.

Step two says, mark a starting dot and ending dot for each rocket.

Use a colour that matches the rocket colour and label them as starting dots and ending dots.

Step three says, draw lines to show which way each rocket will go.

Step four says, in the boxes, write an algorithm for each rocket.

Use the speed algorithm symbol to show which rocket will win.

Let's go through those steps now in more detail.

Step one says, on your design sheet, do a quick sketch of your chosen background.

You want to do this in the large blank part of the sheet.

Pause the video here and work on the first part of the task and I'll be here when you get back.

Welcome back.

So here is an example of step one.

I have done a quick sketch of my chosen background on the design sheet.

I'm sure you worked really hard on your design as well.

The second part of the task says mark a starting dot, an ending dot for each rocket.

Use a colour that matches the rocket colour and label them as starting dots or ending dots.

So you can see here I've drawn the blue start dot and the blue end dot and I've coloured them in.

I want you to do that for all three of your rocket colours.

Pause the video now and work on step number two and I'll be here when you get back.

Welcome back.

well done for working on the second part of your project.

I'm sure you thought really hard about where your rockets are going to start and end.

This is how I filled my sheet in.

First of all, I put down the blue start dot and the blue end dot.

Then I did the same for my red rockets and then I did the same for my green rockets too.

Well done for working on that part of the task.

For the third part of the task, we are going to draw lines to show where each rocket will go.

So remember, yours does not need to look the same as mine.

Your rockets might be starting in a different place or ending in a different place and the directions they may follow to get there might be different.

So as an example here I have done my blue rocket.

I have drawn lines in between the start dot and the end dot.

It's time for you to pause your video now and go and work on step three of this task.

Welcome back.

This is how I did my step three.

Well done for thinking about your journeys that your rockets are going to go on.

I labelled my start and ending dots in the previous step.

And now in this step I added my lines for blue, my lines for red, and my lines for the green rocket.

Step number four says, in the boxes, write an algorithm for each rocket.

Use the speed algorithm symbols to show which rocket will win.

So as an example, I'm going to fill in the boxes on the side for this step.

And in my first box I'm going to write the algorithm for my blue rocket.

So the first step is labelling it blue, and then I'm going to write down my algorithm.

So I'm going to do the start command, then the move fast speed algorithm symbol, and then I want my rocket to go up to move up eight times and then I want the programme to end.

So that's my plan for my algorithm for the blue rocket.

I want you to do the same for all three of your rockets.

It's time to pause the video now, go and work on your algorithms and then I'll be here when you get back.

Welcome back.

Well done for working so hard on your design.

This is how I did step four for each rocket I labelled the box where I was writing my algorithm.

So you'll see the labels blue, red, and green.

And then for each rocket I wrote an algorithm showing my plan for the design.

So how fast I wanted the rocket to move with the speed block and the direction I wanted the rocket to go.

And then making sure that each of my algorithm have got a start and a end it as well.

In the next part of the lesson, we are going to be using the plan that we already created in part one.

So we will be working from a design.

Are you ready? Let's go.

Now that your design is finished, you will use the ideas that you wrote or drew to design your programme.

The first step is to change the background.

So we do this by going up to the top of the screen where there is a change background button.

There are lots of background picture choices.

You will have to scroll down to see all the options.

To scroll, drag up and down with your finger, scroll down to look for the space backgrounds, choose an appropriate background for the space race.

These two here are a really good example of that and then you press the blue tick icon up at the top.

We're gonna watch a clip now to watch the steps to add and delete sprites.

In this video, I'm going to show you how to add sprites to your project and also delete them.

So to add a sprite, we are going to use the blue plus button on the left side and this is the sprite menu.

You might want to scroll down by dragging your finger until you find the sprite that you want.

Tap on it to select it, and then tap on the tick button to add it to your project.

Now sprites always end up in the middle, so drag them with your finger to where you want them to go.

Let's do that again.

We're gonna go to the plus icon on the left.

Scroll down to find the sprite that we want to add.

Tap on it to select it, and then tap on the tick icon at the top and move that sprite to the starting position I want it to be in just like that.

Now to delete sprites, you're going to have to press and hold a sprite with your finger until it starts to wiggle.

Just like that.

Then you can let go and then you tap on the cross to delete that sprite.

Bye-bye penguin.

Let's do another sprite.

We're going to tap and hold on the rabbit sprite till it starts to wiggle.

Let go and then tap again on the cross.

Goodbye rabbit and let's say goodbye to tick.

We're going to tap and hold on tick with our finger, and then let go when it starts to wiggle and then tap on the cross to delete the sprite.

Goodbye, tick, all my sprites have been deleted.

For this project, we need three rocket sprites.

First press the blue add sprite button, scroll down and tap on the rocket sprites.

Then tap on the blue tick button.

That will add a rocket sprite to your project.

You need three rockets, so repeat the steps until you have three rocket sprites.

To change your sprite's design, tap on the paint brush button.

Now this part is one of my favourite parts, getting to create the design of a sprite on Scratch Jr.

Colour the sprites to match your design.

If you've changed your ideas, that's fine.

Let's do a little check here.

Which button do you use to open the painting menu for a sprite? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video now and have a think about your answer.

Welcome back.

Well done thinking about your answer for this question.

Which button do you use to open the painting menu for a sprite? The answer is A.

So we are looking for that paint brush symbol to open up the painting menu.

Well done if you got that one right.

The sprite designs need to be appropriate.

You must have three different rocket sprites.

You will follow your algorithm designs to programme your rocket sprites.

If you see mistakes in the design, you should fix them.

So if you do see any mistakes, that's okay.

That's part of the learning process.

So make sure you follow your algorithms carefully.

But if you do see any mistakes, you can just sort them out.

The speed block needs to come before the movement block.

That's really important.

If it is placed anywhere else, it will not work.

True or false? This rocket sprite will move at the fastest speed.

Pause the video now and see if you could figure out the answer.

Well done for thinking about this question.

True or false? This rocket sprite will move at the fastest speed.

The answer is false.

Why? The speed block needs to be placed before the movement block for it to work.

Then this rocket will move at the faster speed.

So we've got two images here of programmes.

The programme on the bottom is correct because the orange speed block comes before the movement block.

Well done if you got that one right.

Okay, we're gonna get ready to do a task now.

We are going to use your paper designs to create your space race programme on Scratch Jr The instructions say, one, follow your paper design to create your space race programme, you must include a space background, three rocket sprites of different colours.

You must also ensure that the rockets move from the start to the end at a different speed.

So each rocket must move at a different speed.

It's time to pause this video now and go off and work on your space race programmes and I'll be here when you get back to show you how I did it.

Welcome back.

You worked so hard on your space race programmes, excellent work.

We're gonna watch this clip now to see how I did the space race programme on Scratch Jr.

In this video, I'm going to show you how to create the space race programme.

So first step is going to the background menu and scrolling down to find the space background I wanted.

There we go.

Next step, I'm going to add my sprites.

So I'm gonna go to the left and get the add sprite button and I'm scrolling down all the way to the bottom.

The rocket sprite is right at the end.

There it is.

I'm gonna tap on it and tap on the tick.

Now I'm gonna add two more rocket sprites here.

So I'm gonna follow the same steps, scrolling all the way down, maybe even scroll a bit faster this time, get the rocket, and add it and do that again one more time.

I'm gonna go to the plus, find the rocket sprite and add it.

Now it's important here I'm moving my sprites to their starting position, so I'm dragging them where I want them to start their programmes.

So I'm following my algorithm plan here.

I had drawn lines to show dots and lines to show where the sprites are gonna start and end.

So I'm copying that into my programme.

That looks good there.

All right, the next step is designing the sprite.

So I'm gonna press the paintbrush icon here to open up the sprite painting menu.

Wow, you can see lots of different designs.

I'm going to use the bucket tool on the right hand side here.

I'm gonna choose my colour first and then choose the bucket just to change the sprite to be my blue rocket.

So the bucket tool is really good for filling in sections that are already coloured and I thought I'd changed the name of my sprite as well.

So you can tap at the top to change the name of the sprite.

This is helpful if you have a programme with more than one sprite.

Let's do another rocket.

I'm gonna press the paintbrush icon.

There we go.

I'm going to use that bucket again.

And this time I'm gonna create a red rocket.

Not too much to change here because the tip of the rocket was already red.

I'm gonna change the name to be red rocket and then use the tick.

And then our last rocket here, I'm gonna open up the painting menu again.

I'm gonna do the paint bucket first to make my green rocket, thinking about what colour green I want to use.

There.

And now I'm going to rename my rocket by tapping up on the title at the top and typing in green rocket.

Okay, so now I've got my three sprites.

I'm gonna use my algorithms to programme the sprites.

So let's start on the blue rocket.

I'm gonna tap on the blue rocket there.

So I'm gonna follow my algorithm.

I'm gonna use start.

I need to put this orange speed block in between the green start flag and the move up block and the speed block, that's orange.

Changing the speed there and changing how many times I want the rocket to move up.

Let's do the red rocket next.

Following that algorithm, we're gonna go start, get the speed block.

When I press the down button under the speed block, I get the pop-up choices of slow, medium, or fast speed.

Gonna do medium speed for the red rocket, move up eight and end.

And then on the green rocket we're gonna do the same.

So we're gonna do start.

Remember to tap on a value to open up the keypad so you can change the value under a command block.

Get that I'm missing something here.

What am I gonna put in between? That's right, the speed.

I want a slow speed and then the red end block.

Now I'm gonna run my programme.

Let's see how it looks when I press the green flag up at the top.

We can see the rockets have come in first, second, and third.

I'm gonna use the blue reset characters button to move the rockets back to the beginning of the programme so I can test it again.

Let's run the programme and see.

There we go.

I'm very happy with that programme.

Part two of this task says, once your programme is completed, add your own finishing touches to the project.

You can do this by adding other command blocks into your programme.

Remember that you should be making appropriate choices.

What you should add should make sense according to your design.

So you can go and work on this part of the task now.

Pause the video and I'll be here when you get back to show you what my finishing touch was on my project.

Well done for adding your own finishing touches to your project.

I saw all sorts of special effects in people's programmes.

It was really interesting.

We're going to watch this clip now, which shows how I added some finishing touches to my project.

Now that my programme is finished, I'm thinking about what I can add to my project to make it even more interesting.

So my thought is the winning rocket might want to do like a victory dance.

So I'm gonna programme a turn to the left at the end here.

I don't know how far I want the turn to go, so I'm going to try the value of 10 and see if that works.

So let me run my programme and see if turn left 10 works.

Oh, it worked quite well there, but the rocket didn't quite go all the way around.

So I'm gonna press on the reset character button at the top next to the flag and then I'm going to change that 10 to a 12.

Let's see if that runs any better.

I tapped on the 10 to open the keypad and changed it to a 12.

There, I really like that finishing touch to my programme.

You worked really hard today on your programmes.

I'm really proud of all the progress you made today.

Let's summarise the learning that we did today.

Creating a programming project begins with making a design to record your ideas.

A good design helps you make appropriate choices.

An algorithm is a set of clear instructions that can be followed by a human.

You can write algorithms based on a plan to create programmes.

In Scratch Jr, changing the speed value effects how fast or slow your sprite moves.

Thank you for coming to learn with me today.

I hope you enjoyed your lesson and I hope to see you again soon.