Blockly Games – Annenberg Learner

MIDDLE SCHOOL – LEVEL 1

Blockly games are a series of games that introduce the principles of coding to kids. They use blocks that mimic those used in Scratch. We will diving into Scratch-based programing in later lessons, so Blockly is a great place to start learning the concepts you will need.

FUN FACTS

1. The first “pre-computers” were powered by steam.
2. Ada Lovelace is considered to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s.
3. There are approximately 256 programming languages in the world.

MATERIALS NEEDED:
❏ Computer with internet connection

DIRECTIONS:

1. Open your web browser and navigate to https://blockly-games.appspot.com/
2. Open a game category of your choice and start to play.

You will see that the games are all logic-based puzzles that have students working in a basic coding environment.

Students should spend time going through each of the categories and familiarizing themselves with the layout. Scratch is a coding language developed at MIT that uses a block-based drag-and-drop editor to generate code for game design and animations. After going through and completing the Blockly games, your students will be better-equipped to tackle the coding projects in later lessons.

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to use Blockly to use iterative methods to systematically solve problems.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

• How might we complete a the task effectively and efficiently?
• Are their more than one solution to a problem? Is one better than another?