Shape Calculator: A parent’s guide to computing at home
Following on from last week’s workshop, Switched on Sound, this week’s workshop in our computing at home teaching series is Shape Calculator a workshop that will teach your child how to create a program that can draw different shapes based on data input by the user.
This workshop is perfect for ages 7 -11 years.
Part 1 of the workshop will begin by looking at how we, as humans, give instructions and compare this to how computers need instructions given to them.
· To begin, you will draw a shape based on my instructions
· We will then investigate how we could make the instructions better and then look at how we could group shapes together to create a piece of art
· Finally, we will investigate how to represent an algorithm for creating a shape using a flowchart
Part 2 of the workshop will take everything we have learnt about creating algorithms for drawing a shape and create a shape calculator program using Scratch.
· To begin, we will learn about creating a simple program to draw a single shape and then we will investigate how to make this into a reusable piece of code by turning it into a procedure
· Next, we will learn how draw a design that uses multiple shapes
· Finally, we will learn how to use variables to collect data from the user of the program to control the shape and size of the shapes our program will create.
I hope your little learners enjoy Shape Calculator please do get in touch with me at estelle@ukie.org.uk if you have any comments or feedback on the workshop and don't forget to check out all our past workshops, here.
