Drag Racer in Scratch
Scratch is an amazing coding environment for beginner programmers. Here is an easy to play two-player drag racing game. Each player uses only two keys. One key accelerates the car. The second key shifts to a higher gear. Since there is no steering involved, the driver focuses on getting the tachometer as close to the red without touching it. Shifting while in the yellow range will produce the maximum power and the highest speed.
Find someone to race and have fun!
This Scratch game is a throwback to the 1960s.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/157839119/
It’s a simple two player game. One player uses the A key to accelerate. The other player uses the L key. Don’t go too fast or you will fly off the track.
Next month I am helping Mrs. Trusty with an after-school STEM coding class using Scratch. I have used Scratch in the past, but have never tried to do anything complicated. After reviewing the basics, I thought I would try to recreate a classic arcade game. I made my own version of Asteroids.
After I had the Asteroids game working, I converted it to a game that can help a student trying to learn ionic charges of elements. Typically this subject is covered in the second nine weeks of high school chemistry. It is also touched on during freshman physical science.
The game requires you to shoot an ion with that ion’s charge. Cations must be shot with positive bullets and anions must be shot with negative bullets. The bullet must match the charge of the ion.
For instance, sodium is a plus one ion so it can only be eliminated with a plus one bullet. Oxygen is a minus two ion and must be hit with a negative two bullet. Pressing the 1, 2 or 3 key launches a particle with that numerical charge. The space bar toggles the charge between positive and negative.
See how many of the ionic charges you remember with Ionoids.
Merry Christmas from the Trustys – 2016
