Create & Adapt

Lesson 1: Scratch Game Adaptation Challenge

Driving Question: How would I Create and Adapt a Scratch Project to make it my own?

Students begin by reconnecting with the Year 7 MSC theme of Improvisation & Adaptation. A solution does not have to stay the same: it can be explored, changed, tested and improved. Computing applies this idea to an existing digital solution, asking students to think like developers rather than simply users.

Students are introduced to the starter Scratch project, Catch the Stars. In the original game, the player moves a sprite around the screen, a target appears in different places, touching the target increases the score, and the game uses simple controls, scoring and feedback. Students first explore how the existing project works before deciding what should change.

• The starter project introduces a simple code structure:
• when the green flag is clicked, initialise the game and set the score to 0
• repeat the main gameplay until the game ends
• move the player sprite and detect when it touches the target
• use a variable to increase the score when the target is collected
• use conditions such as a timer or obstacle to decide when the game should end

Students then receive the Scratch Game Adaptation Challenge. Working in pairs, they take the starter project and develop their own version. Possible changes include making the game easier or harder, changing player speed, time limits, obstacles, lives, scoring, levels, win and lose conditions, random movement, sprites, sounds, backdrops and instructions.

Students are also encouraged to introduce or strengthen programming features including events, sequencing, loops, selection / if statements, variables, sensing, broadcast messages and operators. The aim is not to add as many features as possible, but to make purposeful changes that improve the project for a clear reason.

The project uses the adaptation principle: Change -> Purpose -> Effect. For example, adding lives is only a strong adaptation if students can explain why they added them and what effect the change should have on challenge, fairness or player experience.

Before building, pairs make a quick adaptation plan. They identify who the project is for, what they are changing, the main coding feature they will use, what they will add or alter, why the change is useful and how their version will be meaningfully different from the starter project.

Students build their adapted Scratch project, then test it as a playable program. They check whether the code runs properly, controls respond, the score or variable changes correctly, the rules are understandable, gameplay works and the adaptation is clearly visible. Anything that does not work should be fixed and retested before submission.

Students produce: Final Adapted Scratch Project + Adaptation Plan + Evidence of testing and improvement

The lesson produces one complete digital project together with evidence that students have understood the starter solution, made purposeful adaptations and tested whether their version works:

• L1: Final Adapted Scratch Project + Adaptation Plan + Evidence of testing and improvement

The final MSC Computing score /100 considers Functionality & Code (25), Quality of Adaptation (25), Gameplay & User Experience (20), Creativity & Problem Solving (15), and Design, Instructions & Presentation (15). Judging takes place after the 50 minute lesson.

Across the strand, students practise:

• exploring and understanding an existing digital solution before changing it
• planning purposeful adaptations and explaining the reason for each main change
• using Scratch programming features including events, loops, selection, variables and sensing
• adapting gameplay through controls, scoring, difficulty, rules, levels and feedback
• testing functionality, interaction and user understanding rather than assuming the project works
• debugging, refining and improving a digital solution before final submission