It's always great to see "in real life" animation that you can tie in to the animation you're teaching! This week I put together a case study of the birth and end of the crazy popular game app Flappy Bird, using Scratch to demonstrate the sprites, event handlers, conditions, operators and variables it takes to build that kind of game. Take a look at this video clip for this demonstration.

Also, Google displayed a cool Valentines Day "doodle" on their search page last week, that used the event handler "when this sprite is clicked" to play audio that corresponded to the animated image. In the UVa Saturday Enrichment sessions, several kids created projects using this approach, so nice to see that it's something Google animators use, too!

And, how many of you have seen the Lego Movie? I don't want to spoil the ending, but a very impressive way to show "fixed" and "growth" mindset in action. Using a subtle play on words throughout the story, you see the struggle between "piece de resistance" and "piece of resistance". And it reminds me, when you teach and talk to kids about their projects from a growth mind, you focus more on the creative process that keeps the programming learning curve flowing, even if they don't yet use the correct words to speak of their work in Computer Science terms. That will come. I don't drill for terms and concepts in the early stages. A growth mind needs that space. And the adult world is full of strict definitions of "masterpiece" that narrows what we see as good and bad. A good rule of thumb? Listen and step away from the "kragle" ;)