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… Create your first project Master basic features including the Stage, Backdrops, Sprites, and Costumes Make things happen with Motion blocks Add sophisticated logic without complicated coding Use audio and video you capture with a webcam or microphone Include your own drawings in your projects Sense what your game’s players are doing and interact with them Write programs that respond to outside changes such as temperature and touch Test your projects to find and fix problems Document and publish projects so others can help you improve them “Remix” projects with online Scratch code and content Create games with multiple game screens and button controls Master skills you can use with even the most powerful programming languages Who Should Read This Book Brand new to programming: Welcome! You don’t need any prior experience with programming in order to gain value from this book.  Considering a career change: Perhaps you are a K-12, junior college, or university student who has perhaps a bit of past programming experience, and you are pondering a full-time career as a software developer. Learning Scratch serves as an excellent diagnostic to gauge your aptitude and interest in the subject matter. Just tinkering: Maybe you are a technology buff who always wondered what work went into developing a software project. You have no real career aspirations in programming--you just enjoy tinkering and having fun.  If you find that you don’t belong in any of the previous three classifications, then don’t worry about it. Set your sights on learning as much as you can and, above all else, having fun, and you’ll be fine!

Table of Contents:
Introduction   1 Hour 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