Unit 2 – Algorithms & Programming: Extended.

#cserTask1 : Visual Programming – Option 2 Blockly Games – Maz

Reflect on your experience (Prompts:)

I chose to work through the Blocky Maze Game as my coding experience is still in an early stage. I quickly felt comfortable coding the initial levels.

The aim was to move the person to the flag which is placed at the end of a maze. Each level increases with coding difficulty and complexity.

Examples

Level 1 – simply to move the person forward two times
level 2 – move forward, then left and then right.
level 3 – 5 – includes the use of a loop (repeat block) which enables the person to keep repeating that movement until they reach the destination flag.
level 6 – 10 – includes an 'if statements' so for example if there is a path to the left the person must turn left.

I found the introductions of the repeat blocks reasonably easy to use, however the found the 'if statements' took a lot more practice for me personally. I enjoyed the challenge and found saying what the code was doing aloud to myself helped my thinking process. I could imagine using this game as a group or individual activity from year 2/3 onwards. It could make a good morning starter for children coming into the classroom and warming up.

Unless I have missed it, I believe it would be helpful to have an extra help button after a certain amount of goes. The coding game provides a wide range of challenges and will be good for teaching task resilience. Level 10 is really complicated and after many goes, I must admit to YouTubing the answer.
F-6 Digital Technologies: Extended Community

G+ Comments

one plus one, 1 comments

• Steven Payne: The Blockly Maze challenges get difficult towards the end! I have used this at quite a few workshops with teachers. Out of about 200 teachers, only one completed Level 10! Pair programming works well.