Computer Science Class for Kids

How To Make a Trivia Game Using AI (chatGPT) On Scratch

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:35:52 -0700

Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.

Hi, I’m Maxwell. I’m a 4th grader and I love coding!
Hi, I’m Jangis and I’m a coding instructor with CodeSpeak Labs!

Welcome to our Scratch tutorial! Today we will be coding a trivia game using a platform called Scratch. For our project we'll use ChatGPT to create a list of questions, so that we don't have to!

Sooo… what is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) website is "like a smart computer that can talk and write like a person, helping us with questions and conversations." (That's a quote straight from ChatGPT itself). The G in ChatGPT stands for GENERATIVE, meaning that its responses are original and have never been written before. Generative AI can create original stories, write poems, code, solve math problems, give you tips about life, etc.

Does that mean that you can tell ChatGPT to write an essay for you and essentially cheat, and tell your teacher that you wrote this piece of...Read More

Rocket Blaster: Build a Scratch Project

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 13:54:03 -0700

Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.
Special thanks to Darwin, the creator of this project and tutorial. Darwin was an inaugural member of the Abretech program for multilingual high school students.
Hi, I’m Darwin. I’m a High School Junior in the AbreTech program. I’m excited to teach you how to make your own Rocket Blaster game where the user is a hero defending the world from rockets.
We're going to be using a block-based programming language Scratch where the player controls the hero shooting fire blasts; if the fire blast touches a rocket, the rocket disappears. The more rockets the hero destroys, the more points are added to the scoreboard. To make the game harder, you can add things that the hero should NOT blast (like innocent birds!), that the player has to avoid.
Using the programming language Scratch, you will be able to create or import interactive elements/characters such as special abilities, game backgrounds, moving enemies to challenge players through the game, and variables whose value change based on events in game.
Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.

Special thanks to Alans, the creator of this project and tutorial. Alans was an inaugural member of the Abretech program for multilingual high school students.
Hi, I’m Alans. I’m a High School Junior in the AbreTech program. I’m excited to teach you the basics of Artificial intelligence (also known as AI). In this tutorial you will code a mini version of an AI chatbot with a back up system.
We'll use the programming language Python to code a program that responds like a human, similar to Artificial intelligence. Your program will ask the user for information and respond in a way that uses that information. The computer saves the information users provide to personalize its responses, like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa.
What we'll cover:
While loops
Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.
Special thanks to Andres, the creator of this project and tutorial. Andres was an inaugural member of the Abretech program for multilingual high school students.
Hi, I’m Andres. I’m a High School senior, at the AbreTech program. I’m excited to teach you how to build your own Seal's Eco Escape, a Scratch Project to Help Save the Biomes.
Welcome to this Scratch tutorial where you will learn how to create an exciting and educational escape room game about a seal on a mission to save the environment. In this game, your seal will embark on a journey to save various biomes, including the forest and arctic tundra. Through the game, the player will learn about the importance of conservation and how they can help protect the environment. Once you’ve completed the project, you can help the seal save other biomes like the desert and the ocean!
Using the programming language Scratch, you will be able to create interactive elements such as puzzles, clues, and hidden objects to challenge players and guide them through the game. You will also learn how to use Scratch to create animations to enhance the...Read More

Create a Climate Change Trivia Game on Scratch

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 13:21:33 -0700

Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.
Special thanks to Mayelin, the creator of this project and tutorial. Mayelin was an inaugural member of the Abretech program for multilingual high school students.
This game on Scratch is going to be a trivia game related to Climate Change! Climate change is a change in the typical weather for a region such as high and low temperatures and amount of rainfall over a long period of time. There are many actions that are beneficial and detrimental that affect climate change and our Earth. In this game, you can help players learn what’s beneficial for our planet and how to take good care of it. We only have one home because there is only one Earth and we need to care for it. Thankfully for us there are various ways to fix it and save our home!
Topics like climate change can be taught through coding. Coding games create fun ways to learn and digest topics that are difficult to understand for children. My game on climate change was built with the goal of having kids becoming knowledgeable on this big topic.
This project helps kids...Read More

Build a Grow a Plant! Game in Scratch

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 08:30:00 -0700

Build a Grow a Plant! Game in Scratch
Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.

Hi! I’m Joskaris, and I’m a high school senior working with CodeSpeak Labs through the Abretech program for first-generation immigrant students. Welcome to my Scratch tutorial for the game I created! I’m excited to share my love of coding with all of you– I believe anyone can learn to code.
Scratch offers an excellent platform for creating interactive games, and this flower game celebrates the beauty of nature. Flowers have always held a special place in human culture, representing beauty, love, and peace. They also play a vital role in our ecosystem, providing food, shelter, and habitat for countless insects and animals. Taking care of flowers is crucial for their growth, just as it is for the well-being of our planet. This game is an engaging and educational way to explore the wonders of nature and the importance of nurturing it.
This game uses event blocks and a point system to simulate the growth of a tiny seed to a fully grown flower! You might even want to get creative and design your flower with your own special flair.
Here’s an example of what your final project could look like. ...Read More

Coding Snake: Story Time with ScratchJr

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:20:06 -0700

Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com. For an easier Hour of Code activity in the same format (read aloud + ScratchJr tutorial), check out Coding Twinkle.
This Hour of Code activity is great for young pre-readers or early readers. First, they'll listen to a simple story and then do a coding activity on a tablet. Our story integrates real code using ScratchJr, a coding language that gets kids coding at an early age (ages 3-6) using colorful coding blocks.
We'll start with a story. You can get the viewable link to the Google Slides with the story here. (Shout-out to our students in The Next Step program who designed and illustrated the story!)
In the story, the main character Snake eats an apple and gets bigger. This is what students can then animate on their tablets.
After reading the story, distribute the tablets to your students that have the ScratchJr app installed on it. ScratchJr is a FREE app you can download on any tablet or phone.
Vermicomposting: How worms can reduce our waste" where you can get the basics on how worms compost our food.
"But what does this have to do with coding?" you might be thinking.
Coding can help bring to life things that might seem complicated, or dry ("vermi... what?") and turn it into a fun game that people want to play! We can "gameify" learning about topics, like how math apps can turn multiplication problem into epic battles of your avatar against monsters.
In today’s project, we are going to build a game about worm composting. Your final project might end up looking something like this:

Press the green flag to play, and use the arrow keys to control the worm and eat the food scraps.
Ok, let’s get coding!
You can get the viewable link to the Google Slides with the story here. (Shout-out to our students in The Next Step program who designed and illustrated the story!)
In the video below, you can watch a read aloud of the story.
After watching that video, distribute the tablets to your students that have the ScratchJr app installed on it. ScratchJr is a FREE app you can download on any tablet or phone.
Download the free ScratchJr app onto each of your classroom iPads or Android tablets here:
Educators & parents: You can do this Hour of Code Activity as a class or students can work on it independently. If you have any questions or need help, email info@codespeaklabs.com.
Shout-out to Salma, one of our student leaders who made these tutorial videos. Salma was one of the founding students of The Next Step program, a creative agency led by underrepresented students in grades 9-14.
Can you create a website to raise awareness about climate change?
Knowing how to create a website can come in handy in many ways. For example, raising awareness about things that are important to you. Climate change is a big and urgent problem the whole world is facing, but there is a lot of misinformation about it on the internet. Let's be part of the solution and spread facts by creating a simple website about the effects of climate change!
To create our website we will include :
Headings
Text and paragraphs
Images
Links
These are common building blocks to websites that you can use over and over again.
In this tutorial, we will also discuss Read More