Storytelling using Scratch

Club Facilitators: Olivia Davis and Jordan D'Addeo
Club Advisor: Diane McGrath

The club kicked off with:
- Introductions
- Learning about the facilitators - their jobs, background in STEM, and fun facts.
- Intro into the project topic and software
- Examples of what to expect in the sessions to come

Then jumping right in with an exercise to get everyone up and moving. The first club exercise was a "Hopes and Fears" exercise to have an open conversation of what the girls hoped to get out of the club and what they may be nervous about.

Learning Scratch Coding Basics
- The girls setup Scratch accounts (parental approval required)
- Learning about Scratch sprites, backdrops, and the code bricks: Motion, Looks, Events, Variables

Created a Practice Project Using the Basics
>> 'Move _ steps'
>> 'Say _ for 1 second'
(This helped apply the scratch basics they had just learned. By select a sprint, and using 2 different code blocks.)

Selecting Famous Women in STEM
The girls were grouped into teams of 2 and randomly given 1 famous women in STEM to research and build their short stories around.

Learning Research Basics
- Completed a Design Thinking activity to brainstorm fact topics to research that student their age are interested in
- Based on the outcome of the brainstorming exercise, the girls researched and prioritized facts and accomplishments

Storyboarding
The teams mapped out their facts in a storyboard format - 2 rows of 3 post-its - only 1 fact/accomplishment and supporting picture per post-it

If Statements

Example:
if the restaurant serves pizza then get pizza
if the restaurant serves pizza then get pizzaelse get a sandwich
if the restaurant serves pizza then get pizza else if they serve breakfast then get pancakes else get a sandwich

Loops

Example:
while ingredients are not combined, mix them together
for 10 minutes, bake at 375
forever, eat the cookies

Week 6
- Selected sprites to represent their characters
- Selected backgrounds to display behind each story scene
- Refined story to a minimum of 5 facts

Week 7
- Organized facts so they were told in a sequence of events
- Tested the story animations to see how long it takes someone to read each fact
- Added custom sprites and backgrounds

Week 8
- Peer reviewed each other's animations
- Learned how to communicate their projects to others
- Learned how to give constructive feedback to each other

Final Presentations

On the final club day, the girls presented what they learned throughout the 8 weeks in front of their families and teachers.

Club picture!

Code snippet