This document provides brief introductions for how to use three free graphic programs that your team may be interested in using in support of your Challenge work.

How to Use Scratch

Scratch is tool that was created by the MIT Media Lab and is available for free.  “Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.” (from the website)

To Download Scratch:

• Go to http://scratch.mit.edu/
• Click on the orange button that says “Download Scratch”
• Choose the type of computer you are on (mac/windows etc.) and click the link beneath that heading
• The installer should download directly to your computer. Open up the installer and follow its instructions.

Basic Scratch Vocabulary:

To understand the basic operating components of Scratch, please read the following from the website:

“Scratch projects are made up of objects called sprites. You can change how a sprite looks by giving it a different costume. You can make a sprite look like a person or a train or a butterfly or anything else. You can use any image as a costume: you can draw an image in the Paint Editor, import an image from your hard disk, or drag in an image from a website.

• You can give instructions to a sprite, telling it to move or play music or react to other sprites. To tell a sprite what to do, you snap together graphic blocks into stacks, called scripts. When you click on a script, Scratch runs the blocks from the top of the script to the bottom.”

Getting Started:

• The Scratch website offers a nice, quick guide that goes over the basic operations here: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/sites/infoscratch.media.mit.edu/docs/ScratchGettingStartedv14.pdf
  • This guide will take you through a step-by-step process for creating a short animation, while using multiple commands in the process.

More Support:

• The Scratch website also includes a detailed reference guide that goes into depth in all aspects of Scratch, including what each command will do. This can be found here: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/sites/infoscratch.media.mit.edu/files/file/ScratchReferenceGuide14.pdf
• If you are more of a visual learner, the Scratch website also provides short video tutorials on concepts like changing color, graphic effects, movement to a beat, costumes, music loops, and creating dialogue. These videos can be found here: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Video_Tutorials
  

How to Use GeoGebra

GeoGebra is free mathematics software that combines geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, and statistics into one easy-to-use package. Essentially, GeoGebra is a coordinate plane on which you can build lines, curves, and shapes either by drawing, entering a function or providing some points to plot. GeoGebra is an extremely useful tool for visualizing math problems and constructions, allowing you to drag objects and change parameters as you go along: no construction is ever finalized or unable to be changed. This software also exposes the relationship between the graphical and algebraic sides of a problem, with side-by-side “algebra view” and “graphics view”.  If one part of a problem isn’t quite making sense, GeoGebra can help display a relationship between the various components of the problem in a clear, visual way.

How to Download GeoGebra: To download GeoGebra to your computer:

• Go to http://www.geoebra.org
• Click on “download.”
• Under WebStart, click on “Webstart.”
• The software should download to your desktop.

The GeoGebra website provides numerous helpful guides to new users as follows:

The GeoGebra Quickstart: http://www.GeoGebra.org/help/GeoGebraquickstart_en.pdf

This is a short guide that offers step-by-step instructions for three different examples of using the program. This guide is useful for seeing some of the possibilities of what GeoGebra can do as well as familiarizing yourself with a few of the tools and commands GeoGebra offers.

Introduction to GeoGebra: http://www.GeoGebra.org/book/intro-en.pdf

This is a much longer guide outlining all of the basic commands and features of GeoGebra. There is a table of contents starting on page 4, so it is easy to find the specific task you would like to know how to do.

The GeoGebra Help Website: http://wiki.GeoGebra.org/en/

This portion of the GeoGebra website is full of various resources to help you, including a manual detailing of all the commands and tools of the program, as well as tutorials offering step-by-step instructions on specific topics.

How to Use SketchUp

SketchUp is a free 3D modeling program (although there is a ‘pro’ version that costs money) that launched in 2000 and can be used “to explore design ideas and experiment with 3D. You can draw your home or famous buildings, use it for projects at home or school, or create fun stuff like cars, space ships, barns, or your dream house.” (from the website)

To Download SketchUp:

• Go to http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/
• Click on the blue button on the right that says “Download SketchUp”
• From here, click on the lower link that says “Download SketchUp”
• Choose what type of computer you are using and click “Agree and Download”
• The installer should download directly to your computer. Open up the installer and follow its instructions.

Getting Started:

• The SketchUp website offers a short guide that goes over the basic operations and vocabulary found here: https://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95079&topic=1700331&rd=1

More Support:

• The SketchUp website includes a detailed user interface that provides and in-depth explanation for all tools in SketchUp. This can be found here: http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=2457916&parent=2457746&ctx=topic
  • Along the left side of the screen, various tools are broken down by category like drawing, construction, and camera.
  • If you are more of a visual learner, the SketchUp website also provides video tutorials on getting started, as well as on individual tools. These videos can be found here: http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html