Timberlane board learns animation

From the Eagle Tribune;

Timberlane board learns animation

By Bryan Deyermond bdeyermond@eagletribune.com

PLAISTOW — The Timberlane Regional School Board was introduced to an animated world of sprites and forever blocks at its meeting last night.

Sherry Hegstrom, a middle-school technology teacher, demonstrated some of the new technology used to teach students. With help from a few of her sixth- and seventh-grade students, she introduced the board to the world of Scratch, a program created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that allows students to create graphic designs.

"Through moving blocks of code, students work to create animations, graphic novels, games and other projects," Hegstrom said.

Using eight commands, students can make their creations move. Each object is referred to as a sprite, which can be anything from a cat to a shark.

Student Gordon Smith, who Hegstrom said has fast become a Scratch expert, gave a five-minute demonstration on how to create fast-moving animation.

Gordon took a sprite — in this case a cat — and showed board members how to make it walk. Using different motion codes, he was able to create movement with the help of a forever block, which can force any coded action to continue until the end of a particular animation.

Gordon used his walking cat and combined several other codes to create a short computer video of the cat walking down a street, a bat flying overhead, and jungle music playing in the background.

Once videos are created, they can be uploaded to the Scratch website, where people worldwide can comment on the students' creations.

Scratch helps students develop their creativity, Hegstrom said.

"They are teaching me something every day," she said.

The board members applauded after each of the three demonstrations.