By Hannah, Natalie & Yin Xuan
In this world that has become an entangled mess of cords, humanity has become deeply troubled with the looming threat of climate change which would result in the robot overlord Elon Musk controlling his robot minions on Earth to destroy anything that moves right from his cushy spaceship in outer space. This was hence the troubling issue at hand during the workshops… just kidding. We just ended up playing with lego looking codes and making cats run through buildings. Disregarding the absolute drama of the introduction, as the technological revolution stands face to face with us, skills such as programming and coding are becoming increasingly more important and relevant. Therefore, USP students bravely took on the task of learning how to use the basic coding platform titled Scratch and imparted their newfound knowledge to their respective clients at the Singapore Association of Mental Health (SAMH).
As a general overview, the USP students who participated in Scratch were split into three different groups to come up with three different games for three different workshops. For this particular week, the groups in the second workshop had to design a “Jumping Game with Scrolling Background”. Sounds complicated right? Just imagine the ancient Chrome dinosaur game we all love, but with the clients now having the freedom to craft their own dinosaurs, complete with different backgrounds. However, the coding bit is every bit as confusing as the title sounds. In extremely layman terms so this is accessible to all who reads this (honestly it’s because this writer doesn’t know the full mechanics of it either): The dinosaur cannot be programmed to move forward because it would reach the end of the screen (on the extreme right) and would teleport back to the front to keep running (on the extreme left). To get around this issue, the whole background has to be programmed to keep moving to the left so it appears the dinosaur is moving as the background flashes by (my tiny brain really blew to bits here!). To the groups in workshop two, you have my respect.
Fig 1: This means that the obstacle (the cute dog in the space suit) has to move towards the character (the cat), instead of the cat moving towards the obstacle.
For those who had no prior coding experience, programming a game from Scratch was definitely no easy task. At least our fellow novel coders had their trusty partners to rely on as they ventured on this challenge together. Working in pairs provided them with an opportunity to distribute the workload, making the preparation process more manageable for each half of the pair. Since the sequence of the code was essential to writing programmes on Scratch, effective teamwork was crucial to ensuring the success of the programme.
We approached Celest to find out more about how her group managed to work together to ensure the smooth flow of the programme. The pair, consisting of Jie Yi and herself, agreed to take turns to work on the project. “For instance, Jie Yi would complete the scrolling background and basic code of the jumping sprite, whereas I edited the code to make it better and added other sprites to the game,” says Celest. They helped the other half whenever either of them faced problems. Furthermore, they managed to plan a script and lesson flow of the workshop such that each of them had a more or less equal role to play. Such excellent teamwork undoubtedly contributed to the successful execution of their game.
Just when our USP coders thought that the hardest part was over, they were faced with an even bigger challenge: imparting their newly acquired coding knowledge to the clients over at SAMH. As the workshop was held over Zoom, they had to adapt to teaching the participants through a screen, a challenge that many Batch Project (BP) participants faced, regardless of which committee they were in. Aside from the awkward silences that many of us must endure in every Zoom conference, the biggest difficulty for some Scratch workshop facilitators was the inability to monitor the participants’ reactions in real time when all they were seeing was another window. Remember when a NUS professor only realised at the end of the lecture that he was muted for 2 hours? Interaction over zoom will always fall short of real life human interaction in such ways…
Fig 2: The bane of every zoom facilitator’s life, the person who does not want to turn on their camera.
Indeed, despite the challenges they faced, the students immensely enjoyed the entire process of learning and teaching Scratch. Coding was as novel to them as it was to the clients - in a pleasant addition, they found it extremely fulfilling and contributory to their personal development. “What I enjoyed most was the creation of the game with my partner as this was the first time I’ve ever used Scratch. This also acted as a basic introduction to coding,” she some of them. With the increasing importance of coding in today’s workforce - who knows? The coding skills they have since picked up from Scratch may be extremely handy in the future!
As with every meaningful project, our USP students walked away with valuable lessons and insights through the workshops. “Although small workshops like this may seem trivial to us, they are actually highly sought after and enriching for the SAMH clients,” says Celest. An apt reminder to never underestimate the impact of our actions! In addition, teaching on an online platform such as Zoom has also equipped our students with the know-hows of planning online lessons, as well as how to avoid hiccups during such lessons. For example, Celest highlighted the importance of making lessons inclusive for all - including non-tech savvy clients, who might not be well-versed in downloading pictures or changing their Zoom background.
Fig 3: We have all experienced a terrifying sight as our zoom backgrounds glitch and morph into our faces in wonderful ways.
Overall, the BP experience has been (evidently) fulfilling and fruitful for everyone. It is heartening to see that stronger bonds have been forged between our incoming USP freshmen, and that they have had much to take away from this experience too. Moving forward, let us continue on with our support for SAMH and wrap this project up as a big success!
Credits:
Fig 2:
https://www.google.com/search?q=zoom+no+camera&rlz=1C5CHFA_enSG784SG784&sxsrf=ALeKk03v5rl8VsqH37Naxdu4nE4wLR5zmw:1627048563556&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8uaadrPnxAhWylEsFHXjDAYEQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1280&bih=689#imgrc=41e5r-P6yyBzIM&imgdii=NPzPgB7W7sYKbM
Fig 3: https://www.google.com/search?q=zoom+background+not+working&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj03Ly-q_nxAhWxi0sFHRdWAcUQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=zoom+background+not+working&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyAggAMgYIABAIEB4yBggAEAgQHjIGCAAQCBAeMgQIABAYMgQIABAYMgQIABAYMgQIABAYMgQIABAYOgcIABCxAxBDOgUIABCxA1DbkAFYk6gBYKupAWgAcAB4AIABU4gBlQmSAQIyMpgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=rMn6YPTWKbGXrtoPl6yFqAw&bih=689&biw=1280&rlz=1C5CHFA_enSG784SG784#imgrc=oYUlHY7h3EHXOM
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