Week 7 (21st July)

We're back from the break and the Scratcher and Guru's were hard at work.

Scratchers:  This week we discussed the concept of cloning, and how this concept was borrowed from the field of biological sciences where cloning of cells and a sheep (Dolly) has resulted in the cells (and the sheep) being copied.  Perhaps the most popular use of the term clone comes from Starwars and the clone wars.  Scratch uses this same concept to make copies of objects.  We do this by using the [create clone of {myself}] block (see image right/below).  When this is inserted into a repeat block, it's easy to make many copies to your sprite.  It can make your code far more re-useable.   For example, have you tried to make lots of duplicates in the past, only to find a simple error the spite that required all the sprites to be deleted and then re-duplicated ?  Cloning removes that problem as you only need to add the code once.  Some issue to watch out for when creating clones in sprite:
1)  Make sure to include a [When I start as a clone] block and then give some actions.  This is a good place to add random actions so each sprite acts differently.
2) when you make the clones, they all pile on top of each other, so you can't see them.  Make sure  in the [When I start as a clone] block you add a move, glide or other motion command to separate them
3) the original sprite just stands there and does nothing in the code shown.  It's important to [hide] the original sprite after all the clones are created.
4) don't make too many clones or the computer will cry :(

Start inventing new game that use cloning !!!

Gurus again did a great job of mentoring and some showed their new tablets that the year 5's are using in class.  It appears Scratch now runs on the tablets so you can bring these if you like.  However we may start the Gurus on Apps if they all have access to tablets.
Appers - while no Appers turned up this week, it appears we have fixed the networking problems that stopped App Inventor from working over the school network (hurray).  Some basic setup instructions are shown below for those schools having similar problems.  Some comments.  App inventor does not work with Internet Explorer (only Chrome or Firefox).  However when setting up the schools proxy server access, we needed to set it up using Internet Explorer as indicated below.  Once done, the other browsers inherited the setup configurations.  Please comment if this information is useful or if your're also having issues.  Many Many thanks to the Jeremy and IT support for making this happen.  This term we will be full steam ahead to develop some cool apps.
Proxy Server setup details to allow MIT App inventor to work are s follows: