May 06, 2025

Week 32 - Project: Introduction and Planning

CLASS OBJECTIVE

Understand the final project we’ll be working on during this period. Analyze examples of interactive games created in Scratch that aim to solve real-life problems. Brainstorm and identify relevant challenges in our school environment to begin shaping your own game idea.

INTRODUCTION

This period, you'll be working on an exciting team project: creating a game in Scratch that helps solve a real problem from our school environment. The idea is to combine your creativity, programming skills, and teamwork to create something meaningful and useful.

Today’s session is all about exploring the project objectives, analyzing examples of games, and thinking about real problems we see at school.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Objective:

The goal of this project is for you and your team to create a game or interactive story in Scratch that helps solve a real-life problem in your school environment. The problem can be anything that affects students or the school community—like learning math, using the keyboard properly, sorting trash correctly (plastic, organic, etc.), or any other issue you observe and think is important.

Stages:

The project will be developed over five weeks, each one focused on a different stage.
Today is Stage 1, where we will:

  • Learn about the project

  • Analyze examples

  • Choose the problem your team wants to solve

Deliverables:

Each session will have a specific task (or deliverable) that must be completed.
For today, your team will:

  1. Choose a problem that is present in your school environment.
  2. Write a hypothesis that describes the problem you chose
  3. Include a short justification explaining why the problem is important or relevant.
IMPORTANT: Most deliverables must be included in both:

  • Your team document (shared template provided by the teacher)

  • Each team member’s notebook

The teacher will let you know which deliverables are required in your notebook and which ones are not.

Team Document

Your teacher will provide a template that your team must use to collect and organize all the evidence and work from each stage of the project.


LETS SEE SOME EXAMPLES OF INTERACTIVE GAMES IN SCRATCH

Here are a few examples of Scratch games that aim to solve real-life problems:

You can explore these and other games on the Scratch website.
Remember: you can look at how these games are programmed, and if you find any game mechanics that could help in your own project, feel free to use or adapt them!

ACTIVITY

  1. Form your team based on the number of members your teacher assigns, and sit together.
  2. Discuss school problems you’ve noticed—things that make learning or daily life at school harder.

  3. Choose one problem your team wants to work on.

  4. Use the template provided by your teacher to write:

    • Problem to solve:
      • Write what issue or challenge you observed at school.
      • Example: First grade students don’t know how to do basic algebraic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).
    • Hypothesis (What do you think causes the problem?):
      • We believe that… [who] + [what problem] + because… [possible cause]
      • Example: We believe that first grade students don’t know how to do basic algebraic operations because they don’t practice enough or the practice is not interactive.
    • Justification (Why is this important?):
      • Explain why this problem matters.
      • Example: Learning basic algebraic operations is the foundation for more advanced math skills and helps students develop logical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

✅ If your team finishes early and still has time, ask the teacher about Stage 2. You may be allowed to start working on the next part of the project.