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Directions with the Finch

Use the Finch’s accelerometer to control the direction of a sprite.

Lesson Level

Intermediate II

Created By

This activity was created by David DeWitt and Mihaela Sabin at the UNH STEM Discovery Lab.

Programming Language

Snap!

Grades

4-5, 6-8, 9-12

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In the Sensing with the Finch lesson, you learned to use the Finch’s sensors to move a sprite on the computer screen. In this activity, you will use the Finch’s accelerometer to control the direction of the sprite.

Here are the requirements for this activity:

  1. When the Finch is level, the sprite should point toward the right side of the screen.
  2. When the Finch’s beak is up, the sprite should point toward the top of the screen.
  3. When the Finch’s beak is down, the sprite should point toward the bottom of the screen.
  4. The Finch’s beak should have a different color in each of these three orientations.

Hint #1: You may want to explore the point in direction block on the Motion menu.

 

 

Hint #2: In Scratch, remember that there are underscores between the words in the names of the different orientations (Beak_Up, Beak_Down, etc.). In Snap!, you must have a space between the words but no underscore.

Extension: Create a game that uses the Finch to control both the amount that a sprite moves and the direction in which it moves.