Here are the activities that each group will be working on today:

Newcomers

If you are new to CoderDojo and new to computer programming this is where you start:

Go to Newcomers Activities

Scratch 1 (Beginner)

Platform Game

Today you will create and learn about platform games. You will program a player sprite to move and jump across platforms when the arrow keys are pressed. In order to win, the player sprite must make it across all the platforms and touch another sprite. Click on the link below and follow the instructions in the videos.

Click here for instructions for the Platformer game project

Scratch 2 (Intermediate & Advanced)

Continue working on recreating the Google Chrome Dino Game

Part 1 – scrolling the ground:

(graphics here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HHHACJn-fGwXVyZXQ9mUL-_UgnE9pP3o)

Solution to part 1

Part 2: Get T-Rex to jump

Can you do this bit yourself without any instructions? Try to add some scrolling cactuses for T-Rex to jump. Do you know how to jump? If you’ve coded platformers before, you know ow to make a sprite jump.

If you’re stuck, here’s a ‘quick and dirty’ tutorial showing one way to do it (these instructions are a bit hard to follow so ask Aidan for help if you can’t follow it):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShVggPFWavk

Solution to part 2

Part 3: Add the cactuses for T-Rex to jump over

The code for this will be very similar to the code for making the ground scroll.

Solution to part 3

Part 4: Finish the game

Can you finish it yourself?????

Here’s what needs to be done:

  • Pterodactyls (the flying dinosaurs)
  • Clouds
  • Make T-Rex duck when down arrow is clicked
  • Day/Night – no need for additional costumes, you can use brightness!
  • Scoring variables & print scores
  • Sound effects
  • Speed up as game goes on

Graphics and sounds for the game

You can find all the graphics and sounds here:
Graphics and sounds for T-Rex Runner

Introduction to Robotics

This session is run by Nathalie. An introduction to robotics using mBot robot kits and a block programming language called mBlock which is similar to Scratch.

Introduction to Robotics session information

Raspberry Pi (with Microcontrollers and other cool stuff)

A collaborative group exploring how computers can interact with the outside world through a range of sensors and controllers. Primarily we’ll be using the Raspberry Pi (http://raspberrypi.org) computer in conjunction with Arduinos (http://arduino.cc) and along the way we’ll learn about Python, C and C++ programming, digital and analogue electronics and about working together.

Electronics, Microcontrollers and Raspberry Pi session information