Overview

In this session, you are going to have hands-on with the Pictoblox application and its various features like- Adding Sprites, and Backdrop and also become familiar with Graphical Programming also known as Block-Based Programming. This session aims to solidify the knowledge of basic block-based coding and to know each block in it. In this lesson, you’ll learn to make a small activity Catching Nemo in which  Nemo follows the mouse pointer, and Dorry tries to follow Nemo by arranging the color-coded blocks in the respective sprite. Watch the video (below) for a step-by-step guide to making the “Catching Nemo” activity within Pictoblox.

What exactly is coding?

Coding also referred to as programming, is creating instructions that can be executed on a computer to perform a specific task or achieve a particular result.

Coding is just like solving a math problem. There may be many ways to solve a problem. Similarly, there could be more than one way to write code for the same task. Like solving any other problem, some coding approaches are more efficient than others.

Think you are playing a video on your smartphone. Your phone is like a computer that needs to be instructed on what to be done. The app playing the video provides this instruction. This video-playing app is an example of coding.

Important Terms in PictoBlox

1. Stage: The stage is a background or a backdrop for your Scratch projects (the programs you’ll create). A white background is in the top left corner; you will see a bear standing there. His name is Tobi and he is what is called a sprite (we’ll see in a moment what it is). The Stage is where the sprite moves, draws, and interacts with other sprites and/or hardware. It has its own set of scripts, images, and sounds.
2. Backdrop: A backdrop is one of the many frames, or backgrounds, that a Stage can have.  The Stage can change its look to any of its backdrops.
3. Costume: A costume is one out of possibly many “frames” or alternate appearances of a sprite. Sprites can change their look to any of their costumes. Every sprite has at least one costume.
4. Block: Block is like jigsaw puzzle pieces that fit into each other. They are predefined commands used to create programs by simply dragging and dropping them below one another in the scripting area.

Pictoblox Block Coding Interface