Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning

Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 1 of 8
Scratch Project Guide: Digital Conversations













Preparation:
Parallelism- One of the key concepts in programming is parallelism. This occurs when sequences of
instructions are happening at the same time. Scratch supports parallelism across objects where multiple
Sprites may have scripts running at the same time. Scratch also supports parallelism within a single
object where one Sprite may have multiple scripts that occur at the same time. In this digital
conversation activity, students will be using parallelism by programming two Sprites with scripts that
run simultaneously.
Conversations have many unspoken rules of etiquette that need to be followed. Some of the ones
related to this activity are:
o Dont interrupt someone who is talking
o Take turns so everyone has a chance to talk
o Be a good listener
o Let people finish their own thoughts/sentences
o Wait for a question to be answered before asking another
Scripts are specific to each Sprite. Students must click on the Sprite for which they are writing the script.
Anticipate that students will have trouble using the wait block to allot appropriate time in between
speech bubbles.
Find examples of simple and complex conversations by searching Scratchs website:
http://scratch.mit.edu/search/projects/?q=conversation&date=anytime&sort_by=datetime_shared

Materials: Conversation.sb, Debug_Wait_times.sb, Conversation_Checklist.doc


Engage:

A conversation is informal communication between two or more people. There are standard rules of etiquette
that people follow when they are engaged in a conversation. Turn to a partner and discuss some of the rules you
follow when having a conversation with someone.
View the sample Scratch project, Conversation.
DISCUSS THIS: Until now, you have been working with one Sprite and one script at time. How is this
sample project different?
Objective: Students will create a script in the Scratch program in order to program a digital conversation.

Performance Task: Use Scratch to create a digital conversation between two or more characters. Get
characters talking to each other by using the say blocks, think blocks, wait block, and wait until green flag
clicked hat to coordinate the conversation.

Suggested Activities:
Have your Sprites represent a famous person being interviewed by a reporter.
Create a conversation using dialog from your favorite book.
Imagine that two fictional or historic figures from separate times and/or places were to meet.
Create the conversation that they would have.





Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 2 of 8

Learning Activities:

Looks: say

This block displays a Sprites speech bubble.
Drag the say block into the scripts area.
Type a word or phrase in the input area.
You can remove a speech bubble by running this block without any text in the input area.


Looks: say for

This block displays a Sprites speech bubble for a set number of seconds.
Drag the say for block into the scripts area.
Type a word or phrase in the input area.
Type a number of seconds in the input area.


TRY THIS: Make a Sprite explain what the move block does in two sentences. Each sentence should be
its own speech bubble. Use the say for block for the first sentence and the say block for the second sentence.

Looks: think

The think block displays a Sprites thought bubble.
Drag the think block into the scripts area.
Type a word or phrase in the input area.
You can remove a thought bubble by running this block without any text in the input area.


Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 3 of 8
Looks: think for

This block displays a Sprites thought bubble for a set number of seconds.
Drag the think for block into the scripts area.
Type a word or phrase in the input area.
Type a number of seconds in the input area.

TRY THIS: Make a Sprite think about being hungry and lunch time. Use the think for block to make
him think about his empty stomach for 5 seconds, then use the think block to make him wonder what he is
going to eat for lunch.

Control: when flag clicked
The when flag clicked hat runs the script below when the green flag is clicked at the top of the stage.
Remember that hats are placed at the tops of stacks. Drag this hat to the scripts area on top of a block or
stack of blocks.
Click on the green flag at the top of the stage in order to run the script.

TRY THIS: Create a new Scratch project with two Sprites. Decide on fictional names for them. Have
them introduce themselves when the green flag is clicked by using the when flag clicked hat and say block to
build scripts. Remember that scripts are specific to each sprite. You must click on the sprite for which you are
writing a script. Be sure to save the project when you are finished.

JOURNAL THIS: Write down the scripts that you created for both Sprites. Explain what each
script did.

DISCUSS THIS: When the two Sprites introduce themselves, they arent really having a conversation.
Why isnt this considered a conversation? What needs to be added or changed to make it a conversation?
Think about the conversation rules you discussed earlier.
Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 4 of 8



Control: wait

This makes the script wait for a certain amount of time before continuing to the next block.
Drag the wait block in between two blocks.
Type a number to indicate the amount of seconds that the script should wait.

TRY THIS: Use the move and wait blocks to make a Sprite move 100 steps, wait for 5 seconds,
and then move 100 more steps.

JOURNAL THIS:
Parallelism makes two or more programs happen at the same time. It comes from the word parallel
which means two things that are similar in nature but dont touch or interact with each other.
Parallel scripts can be written for one Sprite so that it performs multiple actions at the same time.
Parallel scripts can also be written for more than one Sprite so that they all perform their actions at the
same time.
Open and run the program Conversation.sb. Examine the scripts and explain how this program shows
parallelism. Describe how the scripts were built to create a true conversation between the Sprites. Try
changing some of the numbers in the wait blocks. Record what happens.

TRY THIS: In order to program a back-and-forth conversation, wait times must match up for each
Sprites script. For example, if one Sprite has the say hello for 2 secs block running, the other Sprite should
have the wait 2 secs block running. This lets two scripts happen at the same time while still letting the Sprites
take turns in their conversation. Open and run the program Debug_Wait_times.sb. Identify what is going
wrong with the conversation and fix it. You may need to add wait blocks or change the number of seconds in
the input areas.

JOURNAL THIS: What was the problem? How did you fix the problem? Record the corrected
scripts.

Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 5 of 8
TRY THIS: Edit the program you wrote with the two Sprites introducing themselves. Use the when
flag clicked hat, the wait block, and the say for block so that they take turns speaking when the green flag is
clicked.

Formative Assessment:

Performance Task: Use Scratch to create a digital conversation between two or more characters. Get
characters talking to each other by using the say blocks, think blocks, wait block, and when flag clicked hat to
coordinate the conversation.

Think about:
o What characters will you use? Will you need costumes?
o What do you want the characters to say or think?
o What background will you need to stage the conversation?
o How could you use movement to enhance the conversation?
Plan your idea by writing out the dialog for each character. Share your idea with a partner to get their
feedback.
Write the script(s). Use the wait, say, say for, think, think for and/or when flag clicked
blocks to make your sprites have a conversation.
Test the script(s) and correct if needed for the following:
o Each script is created for the appropriate sprite.
o Each scripts wait time coordinates with the other scripts.
o The script(s) runs when you click on the green flag.
Show it to your partner for feedback. Use the Conversation_Checklist.doc to guide you.

o Did you accomplish your task?
o Did your project end up being what your first imagined?
Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 6 of 8
o What did you like best about it?
o What would you like to improve on it?
What additional projects could you create for a Digital Conversation using the Scratch
features and the concept of parallelism? How do you think you could take this project to the next level?

Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 7 of 8

Resources:

WAIT
Insert a pause.

SAY/THINK
Have a speech or thought bubble
appear over a sprite.




COORDINATE
Synchronize actions between and
within sprites.








Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Digital Learning
Office of Instructional Technology & Library Information Services: Scratch Project Guide Digital Conversations
July 2013 Page 8 of 8
Teacher Rubric
Excellent
4 pts
Good
3 pts
Average
2 pts
Needs more work
2 pts
Were all of the following blocks used?




Does the user understand the purpose of the
program?

Does the project work as expected?
Is it an engaging, creative, and original project?
Does your background/stage enhance the digital
conversation?

Does your sprites/costumes enhance the digital
conversation?

Has the program been thoroughly tested?
Are there any known issues/bugs?