Lesson 24: Swimming Fish in Sprite Lab
Overview
In this lesson, students will learn about the two concepts at the heart of Sprite Lab: sprites and behaviors. Sprites are characters or objects on the screen that students can move, change, and manipulate. Behaviors are actions that sprites will take continuously until they are stopped.
Purpose
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the core vocabulary of Sprite Lab, and allow them to apply concepts they learned in other environments to this tool. By creating a fish tank, students will begin to form an understanding of the programming model of this tool, and explore ways they can use it to express themselves.
Agenda
Warm Up (10 min)
Main Activity (20 min)
Wrap Up (15 min)
View on Code Studio
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Define “sprite” as a character or object on the screen that can be moved and changed.
- Create a new sprite and choose its appearance.
Preparation
- Play through the lesson to find any potential problem areas for your class.
- Make sure ever student has a journal.
Links
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any documents you plan to share with students.
For the Students
- Think Spot Journal - Reflection Journal
Vocabulary
- Behavior - An action that a sprite performs continuously until it’s told to stop.
- Sprite - A graphic on the screen with a location, size, and appearance.
Support
Report a Bug
Teaching Guide
Warm Up (10 min)
Introduction
Content Corner
Teaching this course as a class?
Our grade-aligned CS Fundamentals courses use unplugged lessons to build community and introduce tricky computer science concepts, including sprite behaviors. Check out the lesson Simon Says from Course E!
Today students will learn how to work with sprites in Sprite Lab.
Display: Pull up a previous puzzle from Code.org, ideally one containing a "main character" like Scrat from Ice Age or one of the Angry Birds.
Discuss: Let the students know that this character on the screen is a "sprite." It is a graphic that is controlled by a program. In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to choose their own sprites to control.
Display: Begin by showing the first puzzle (level 2 on Code Studio) to your students.
Think/Pair: Ask them to predict what will happen when the code is run, and to discuss with their neighbors. Run the code, and discuss the outcome.
Now is a great time to introduce the lesson vocabulary.
Main Activity (20 min)
Goal: Today, students will be creating their own Fish Tank. They’ll begin by learning how to put some sprites on the screen, then they will make them move. Finally, they’ll customize their fish tank to add whatever creatures and objects they want.
Teaching Tip
Encourage students with questions/challenges to start by asking their partner. Unanswered questions can be escalated to a nearby group, who might already know the solution. Have students describe the problem that they’re seeing:
- What is it supposed to do?
- What does it do?
- What does that tell you?
Online Puzzles
Transition: Move students to their machines. Encourage students to follow the instructions for each puzzle. Help them realize that this is a creative activity, intended to help them learn Sprite Lab. It is not an assessment activity of any sort.
Reminder: If puzzles are sharable, remind the students to only share their work with their close friends or family. For more information watch or show the class Pause and Think Online - Video.
Wrap Up (15 min)
Journaling
Having students write about what they learned, why it’s useful, and how they feel about it can help solidify any knowledge they obtained today and build a review sheet for them to look to in the future.
Journal Prompts:
- What was today's lesson about?
- How do you feel about today's lesson?
- How did it feel to make a scene that was more creative?
- Was it difficult to finish a lesson where there was no clear "right" and "wrong"?
Student Instructions
Make a prediction: What do you think will happen when you run this code?
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called Swimming Fish. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
This level will validate a student’s code by checking that the following conditions have been met:
- Student must have at least one fish sprite with an active behavior.
Student Instructions
Let's make a fish tank!
Change the tumbleweed sprite into any kind of fish by clicking the sprite picker block.
Be sure to also update this sprite's costume in the add behavior block.
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called Swimming Fish. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
This level will validate a student’s code by checking that the following conditions have been met:
- Students must have at least one fish sprite with an active behavior.
- The fish sprite needs to move left and right. This can be done by changing its behavior to
swimming left and right.
Student Instructions
The fish is getting dizzy!
Change the fish's behavior so that it swims left and right.
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called PROGRESSION NAME. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
This level will validate a student’s code by checking that the following conditions have been met:
- Student must change the background to something other than white.
Student Instructions
Our fish tank needs some water!
Use the set background color block to make the background any color. We recommend blue!
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called Swimming Fish. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
This level will validate a student’s code by checking that the following conditions have been met:
- Student must create exactly two unique sprites, and one must be a fish.
Student Instructions
The fish is adventurous and wants to meet new creatures in the sea. Add another sprite to the fish tank. This sprite can have any costume other than the one you use for your fish!
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called Swimming Fish. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
This level will validate a student’s code by checking that the following conditions have been met:
- Each sprite must have an active behavior.
Student Instructions
What do you want your fish’s new friend to do?
Add a behavior and watch them go!
Teaching Tip
This lesson contains a mini-project called Swimming Fish. This progression may feel very different from what has come earlier in the course for you as well as your students. These levels have some new characteristics you may want to explore before starting.
- The code your students write in one level will automatically transfer over to the other levels. This allows them to build gradually and iterate on their ideas as they learn.
- These levels allow for more open-ended creativity. Empower your students to determine for themselves when they have completed each task. There is no one right answer!
- Example solutions are available for this step of the progression which can be viewed by opening the teacher panel to the right.
Student Instructions
We've added a lot of new blocks to the toolbox.
Play with them to make your fish tank special!
Standards Alignment
View full course alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
AP - Algorithms & Programming
- 1B-AP-12 - Modify, remix or incorporate portions of an existing program into one's own work, to develop something new or add more advanced features.