BlocksVR: Click to Change

Do it together

1. Open mytekdev.com/try/blocksvr?lesson=click-to-change&ref=fam-blocksvr-3 together. A short guide runs along the top; follow it: press Play, click the blue box a few times (drag to look around if you need to), press Stop, then click Box in the Your world list on the left. Ask: you clicked the box and it changed color, so how does it know you clicked it?

   You'll know it worked when: The box changed color with each click, and its behavior card on the right has an Edit button.

2. Press Edit on the box's behavior card. The rules open: two cards, each a When menu, an arrow and a second menu. When always, then spin slowly. When I get clicked, then change to a random color. The When is the event, the menu after the arrow is the action, and together they are a rule. The program checks its rules over and over, many times a second, and the click rule acts only in the moment a click happens. If your child is curious, switch to Code to see the same two rules written as code.

   You'll know it worked when: Your child can point to the event and the action in each card.

3. Click Ball in the list and press + Add behavior. The new program starts with the same two rules as the box. Change the click rule's second menu, what to do, to grow bigger. Press Play and click the ball twice.

   If you get stuck: Press Stop before changing a rule, and Play to test it.

   You'll know it worked when: The ball grows on the first click, and not on the second.

4. Ask why the second click did nothing. Grow bigger means twice its normal size, not twice its size now, so the second click asks for a size it already has. The computer did exactly what the rule said. One fix: press + Add a rule and make a second card, every 2 seconds, go back to normal size, so the next click can grow it again.

   You'll know it worked when: Your child says the bug was in the rule, not in the computer.

5. Give the cone a behavior and change its click rule to say Hello!.

   You'll know it worked when: In Play, clicking the cone makes it say Hello!.

6. Now the donut. Its click rule becomes add 1 point. Press + Add a rule for a second card: When the score reaches 5, then show You win! after the arrow. Press Play and click the donut five times.

   If you get stuck: A new card does nothing until both of its menus, the When and the what-to-do, have been chosen. Check the second card first.

   You'll know it worked when: The score climbs with each click, and the fifth click wins.

7. Swap one When for a different event (the player is near me, every 2 seconds, the space bar is pressed). Before pressing Play, your child says what will happen.

   You'll know it worked when: Your child's guess matches what the thing does in Play, or they can say why it did not.

8. Then the real question, without trying it: if the donut's click rule said add 1 point and the box's did too, how many clicks would it take to win?

   You'll know it worked when: Your child says five clicks in all, on either thing, because the score is one number the whole world shares. That means they see that rules on different things can change the same game.

Talk about it

Ask these while you work together. A child who has understood the lesson can answer them without help:

• Point to the event in this rule, and the action.
• How often does the program check its rules?
• Why didn't the ball grow on the second click?
• Your donut never says You win!. Which card would you check first?
• Without trying it: if the donut's click rule said add 1 point and the box's did too, how many clicks would it take to win?

Bring it into other subjects

• Language arts: write three rules for a household helper robot as when and do sentences.
• Science: living things respond to events too. A plant turns toward light: what is the event, and what is the action?
• Art: design a garden where every thing responds to a click in a different way, then have someone at home guess each rule.
• Math: a rule that runs every moment can move something at a steady speed, a little at a time.

Quick check

Name: ______________________________

1. In the rule "When I get clicked, do turn red", what is the event? (A) turn red, (B) I get clicked, (C) the rule.

2. A ball has the rule "When I get clicked, do grow bigger." You click it three times. How big is it? (A) twice its normal size, (B) eight times, (C) normal size.

3. Write a rule that makes something spin fast when the player is near it.

Answers

From the app's rule cards. A new behavior starts with the box's two rules (always: spin slowly; I get clicked: change to a random color). Grow bigger sets the size to twice normal, so later clicks change nothing. Add 1 point adds one per click; the score is shared by the whole world.