So what happened to fidget spinners? This project enables the children to explore programming the iPad’s tilt function  (the accelerometer) and build it into their own games. These notes are for the @yorkshireRTC that was launched today – Good luck!

Although my skills tend to be in creative media, video, animation, digital photography etc, I’m constantly asked for support with coding. Hopscotch is still my tool, (Swift Playgrounds is good too if Apple are reading!). The joy of Hopscotch, is how with just a few basic concepts, children can design completely unique and original projects and games.

So the above uses 3 simple concepts .

1. Control we program the “hero” parallelogram to move in response to user tilting the iPad.

2. Random the “villain” fidget spinner icon is programmed to move randomly in terms of speed, distance and direction.

3. Collide so here we program  the objects so that when they collide, or in Hopscotch terms “bump” we hear a sound and illicit a “game over” message.

With just these three elements in place children can experiment and begin to build their own games. If you are reading this on an iPhone or iPad, you can download the project and remix it.

Here’s my code. There’s probably more elegant ways to code it, but I’m a learner just like the children in the classroom.