Linking SCRATCH to Arduino Block Programming Development

Pedagogical goals

To show how block programming works and to make it easier when students start programming with Arduino.

Necessary materials

Computers, laptos. Microsoft's App Teams is used to perform the remote activity, for which internet is required.

Preparation

“The presentation of the first project was made, and the students were instigated to create an object that moves according to the mouse keyboards.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/432422353/editor
In project 2, we used the example we did in the training. I showed how to make changes to the scenario and how to animate the letters of my name. The students, with the help of this explanation, had to make a program using the letter of their names.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/432276758/editor/
I showed that all the ideas in the class were inspired by the Scratch platform tutorials and that they could also create new activities exploring this resource.
I showed project 3, which was carried out with the inspiration of the tutorials.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/432420933/editor
I finished the class with the blinking star project, as I will do in the first Arduino program “Blink”.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/432430409/editor
This way, I can associate this knowledge of block programming with the IDE's programming.
I showed the activity where the objective was for the star to blink, within a certain period. I asked them to do the same procedure using another character and at a different time".

Conducting the activity

At each presentation of a new program, students were invited to carry out a similar program, but including modifications according to their inspiration. For everyone to participate, they were asked to perform in pairs. Some students followed along by cell phone, but with the sharing Teams feature, everyone experienced what can be done.

Discussion and reflection with students

The importance of learning block programming and how it will be part of our lives.

What went right

I found the result of the activity very interesting. The students commented that they liked it a lot. I was very happy when I presented the Tucano that flies project and the student commented that it looked like he was working at Marvel.

What can be improved

I liked the result, I didn't know Scratch and I didn't really understand how block programming works. I was very happy with the result.