Coding Backflips!

Normally I put my videos at the end of my blog, but I feel this one needs to be the centre of attention. Based on this video and social distancing you may assume I have tons of time on my hands. The truth is I do not, I am just being a procrastinator. What sounds like more fun to you, coding and making a funny video to go along or writing a research essay?

I have used Hour of Code while I was in school so I decided to give Scratch a try for this blog. I was a little bit intimidated at first without guidance, but I found my way through it. I had just a great desire to make the character do a backflip during our online class that I knew I there was no putting it off. I struggled at first to figure out how to make this backflip happen. It really took my work with angles and pausing to make my character look like it was doing a backflip. Once I had my character doing a backflip I decided that was too boring. I created an outfit for my character to flip in and out of. This required some careful drawing skills, and some sleuthing to find out how to add more than one costume. Then I needed to repeat the sequence to make my character backflip again to be back to normal so when I started the run it would not ruin the costume surprise. I had some difficulty here because I messed up the pattern, which took a while for me to find. Finally, it was time to put my character on the stage where he deserves to be.

I really enjoyed Scratch, probably more than Hour of Code. I remember doing Hour of Code in middle and high school feeling like it was more for younger kids. I feel like Hour of Code is great for younger grades who need the structure and guidance to create coding projects, where older students would appreciate the freedom of scratch. I think coding is a valuable skill to learn. As technology advances it is important that we have a base understanding of how it works. Coding is also great for problem-solving skills, especially on scratch. When something goes wrong you have to look back to find where it went wrong and figure out how to fix it. Coding on Scratch is also great for math skills. Even using the X and Y axis is so great as it reinforces that math knowledge. Coding is so valuable, and we are so lucky to have great resources to use to share this knowledge.

Wishing everyone health during this time!