Creative Coding

Common Non-Silicate Minerals

Coding is intimidating, but Scratch makes it fun! Looking back, I vaguely remember using something like Scratch in my 8th grade Computer Literacy course. I did not understand it at all. But, coming back to it as an adult, an adult who is at least better at looking things up online, coding made a lot more sense. That doesn't mean I didn't struggle, however. 

It was in class, when everyone was talking about their experience with Scratch, that I had the idea to create an interactive study tool for learning minerals. Before even thinking about code, I dug through the photos on my phone to find ones I'd taken in college while studying Geology. My Rocks and Minerals professor taught us different groups of minerals each week. One of those weeks was common non-silicate minerals. The minerals were always stored in wood trays that fit perfectly into cabinet drawers. I loved seeing all the different colors, shapes, sizes, and textures of minerals spread across the lab's tables in their wood trays, and my hands itched to examine them. With the help of a friend, we cut different mineral specimens out of my old photos to use as Sprites, and I snapped a shot of a wooden box for the project background. Then I looked at my old college notes, photos, and a few websites (https://www.mindat.org and https://geologyscience.com/minerals) and compiled a table of information I wanted to include for each mineral. 

With that done, the dreaded coding time was upon me. I knew I wanted each mineral to "say" information about itself when you click it, so I tried experimenting with that first. I got as far as "When this sprite clicked, say ___" before I encountered problems. I tried finding another rocks and minerals Scratch project to look at its code, but couldn't find anything that fit what I was looking for. I ended up searching "How do I get a sprite to say something when I click it and then have the info go away after I click it again?" Among the search results was a Scratch discussion page where users shared their code, but it still wasn't exactly what I needed. I was very confused because at this point, I didn't understand that you could make a variable or what that even meant. I ended up asking ChatGPT for help out of desperation. It was able to explain the code, what it meant, and why it worked, in ways the forums and tutorials I found could not. I'm honestly not sure how I would have figured out this part of the code without it, since none of the resources I found explained the why behind it.

After making the minerals clickable, I wanted them to light up when you hover over them, so they felt more like website buttons, and it was obvious you could click them. I googled "how to make a Sprite glow when your mouse touches it" and found another Scratch discussion post with a code example. After my experience with the last part of the code, it was much easier to understand what I was looking at, which parts would work for me, and which I needed to change. I was more creative with this part and added blocks that make the minerals wiggle and say their names when you hover over them. I played with changing their colors, but ultimately decided that, since this is a study tool, the minerals should look like themselves. 

Overall, I am happy with what I created. If I had more time and understood Scratch better, I think I would have had each mineral take you to a different background with information on it, rather than have the minerals "say" the information. I used Scratch to create science materials, but I can see how it could be used in any subject. Teachers could create interactive educational resources for their lessons, and students could create their own study materials. On the more artistic end, students could use creative coding to tell their own stories, explore their identities, and connect with their peers. Creative coding also has the potential to pair well with other artistic media, such as animation, photography, sound design, drawing, painting, etc, expanding students' options for expression.