Alice Tutorials Summer 2009
Note: This material is still constantly being revised and added to.
Each tutorial comes with the original powerpoint (.ppt) file for you to modify as well as 1-slide, 2-slides, and 4-slides per page handouts. Most topical tutorials also have an exercises page with suggested practice to reinforce what was taught in the tutorial. Files (such as starting worlds or sounds) needed for the tutorial are also provided to download.
Repository Uploading Instructions: .ppt, Slides (.pdf), Handout
Getting Started Tutorials
Name: The Essentials of Alice (Bunny)
Level: Beginner
Time: 15 minutes
Description: A short tutorial that introduces the learner to Alice by walking through the creation of a world with a bunny. Good for a first time glimpse at what Alice can do. Concepts introduced include scene set up and built-in methods.
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Name: The Essentials of Alice (Kangaroo)
Level: Beginner
Time: 15 minutes
Description: A short tutorial that introduces the learner to Alice by walking through the creation of a world with a kangaroo. Good for a first time glimpse at what Alice can do. Concepts introduced include scene set up and built-in methods.
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Name: An Introduction to Alice
Level: Beginner
Time: 1 hours
Description:This tutorial can be used by first time Alice users to
learn the Alice basics. The characters are an astronaut and a humvee.
Worlds:
Finished
Links:
.ppt,
Slides,
2-Handout,
4-Handout,
Exercises
Name: Getting Started with Alice
Level: Beginner
Time: 1 Hour
Description: This tutorial introduces basic Alice concepts such as adding objects, setting up a scene, writing and using a new method, camera control and simple events. This tutorial is written with a target of ages 8 and up to get younger kids interested in Alice but could also be used as a first tutorial for older kids.
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Name: Skater World: Learning to Program
Level: Beginner
Time: Approx. 45 minutes to do each part of the tutorial
Description: This tutorial has four parts showing you how to add objects, set up scenes, change properties,
write new methods, camera control, import and animate 2D images, use 3D text, and sound.
Finished Worlds:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4
Part 1: Scene Set up and Starting Animation
Links:
Part One Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page)
Part 2: Writing Methods, Changing Properties and using As Seen By
Links:
Part Two Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page)
Part 3:Camera Control and Events
Links:
Part Three Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page)
Part 4:Animating 2D Images, 3D Text and Using Sound
Links:
Part Four Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page)
Plane Image | TakeOff Image | Sound Clip
Name: Learning to Program with Alice
Level: Beginner
Time: 45 Minutes
Description: This tutorial has four parts showing you how to add objects, set up scenes, write new methods, camera control, events, and how to do many other things with Alice.
Finished Worlds:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4
Part 1: Scene Set up and Starting Animation
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Part 2: Writing Methods and Events
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Part 3: Camera Control, Invisibility and 3-D Text
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Part 4: Sounds, Billboards, 3D Text, AsSeenBy
Links:
.ppt,
Slides (.pdf),
2-Handout,
4-Handout
Name: Teaching Characters to Walk: Learning Methods, Part 1
Level: Beginner
Time: 30-45 minutes
Description: This tutorial teaches the basics of writing methods. You will teach a turtle
how to walk, and a kangaroo how to hop, and then make them race against each other.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
.ppt,
Slides,
2-Handout, 4-Handout,
Exercises
Name: Using Placeholders to Simplify Your Methods: Learning Methods, Part 2
Level: Beginner
Time: 20 minutes
Description: This tutorial builds on "Learning Methods, Part 1", continuing
the story of the turtle and the kangaroo. You will
learn how to use parameters, and how to save out your characters and use them in
other worlds. You will also learn how to use the "isShowing" property.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
Name: Buttons and Birds: Introduction to Events
Level: Beginner
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial introduces simple interactive events in Alice so that the user can interact with an Alice world using keystrokes and mouse clicks. The tutorial covers keyboard and mouse click events. Concepts used include methods.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
.ppt,
Slides,
2-Handout,
4-Handout,
Exercises
Name: How Tall Are You? Introducing Functions
Level: Beginner
Time: 30 minutes
Description: This tutorial is a first look at how to ask for specific information about objects by using
functions. You will help the guy and the penguin figure out who is the tallest and become friends.
The decision statement IF/ELSE and the functions of height and distance will be used.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
More Tutorials
Name: Alice and Daisies
Level: Beginner
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: A tutorial focusing on the movement and placement of objects in Alice. Concepts covered include centers, quad view, and orientation.
Worlds:
Starting World,
Finished World
Links: Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
Name: Simple Quiz
Level: Beginner
Time: Approx. 30 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to create a simple quiz using the three different "ask user" functions.
Worlds:
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Name: Lights Camera Action! Part 1: Camera Control
Level: Beginner
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial shows how to move and control the camera during world set up and drop dummy cameras. Concepts covered include adding and posisitioning objects in the world.
World: Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Lights, Camera, Action! Part 2: Light
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial shows the user how to add Light objects in Alice and manipulate them to construct a scene from the Nutcracker. Changing of the Atmosphere color and Fog is also covered to create a realistic dawn. Other Topics include the vehicle property, loops, and opacity.
Worlds: Start, Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Lights Camera Action! Part 3: BDE Events
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial introduces a new type of event called the BDE. Concepts used in this tutorial include functions and methods. The tutorial will walk the user through the creation of a BDE event, explaining each of the components in a BDE.
World: Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: sceneChange
Level: Intermediate
Time: Approx. 30 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to animate scene changes, by changing the camera views
and importing an object that allows you to access the six template grounds.
Worlds:
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page),
Exercises
Name: Shark vs. TRex: Understanding AsSeenBy
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: Teaching the basics of asSeenBy in Alice using an interaction between a shark and TRex over a coconut. Additional concepts covered include methods, sound, style, and events.
Files: Start World, Jaws.wav, Finished World
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Making Billboards
Level: Intermediate
Time: 45 Minutes
Description: A tutorial that will teach you how to import images into Alice in the form of Billboards. Tutorial walks the user through the creation of a instructions and a question billboard. Concepts include events and methods.
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Headshots in Alice
Level: Intermediate
Time: 1 Hour
Description: A tutorial that shows how to insert faces into Alice in the form of pictures on billboards. Topics covered include billboards, camera movement, and 'invisible'.
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: What can burn in the Junkyard? Creating Functions
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 - 45 minutes
Description: In this tutorial you will add functions to an interactive world by restricting what objects can be burned. Functions
and parameters are the main focus but, there are also nested IF/ELSE statements.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout
Name: Checking for Collisions
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial explains how to create and use a function that tests for the collision between two objects in Alice. Concepts used include functions.
World: Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Restricting Events
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: This tutorial starts off with the beginnings of a chicken game. The game is broken however because you can move onto the next task/level before the first level is finished. THe tutorial shows the user how to fix it by restricting events in Alice.
World: Start, Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Making Objects Move in Unison: Using Lists
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 minutes
Description:This tutorial teaches how to use lists to make groups of objects move in
unison, or do the same thing one at a time. The main characters are a group of evil ninjas.
Worlds:
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
Name: Animating Objects in Groups: Using Arrays and Lists
Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 minutes
Description:This tutorial instructs how to use arrays and lists to animate
objects all together, or to animate only part of a group together. The main characters
are chickens, and they are programmed to do movements either simultaneously, one
at a time, or in small groups.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
Name: Creating a Fancier Chicken - Inheritance
Level: Intermediate
Time: 45 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to modify and save out existing classes in Alice. You create a modified chicken class that inherits everything from the original Chicken class but also has some new methods and modified properties.
Files:
TalentedChicken.a2c
Links:
.ppt,
Slides,
2-Handout,
4-Handout,
Exercises
Name: Making Folders in the Local Gallery
Level: Intermediate
Time: 20 Minutes
Description: This tutorial will show you how to add and edit your own folders in the Alice Gallery. It will show you how to put objects into them as well as create images for the folders. The tutorial will NOT show you how to create new classes in Alice but you can use the classes you save out and put them in your own folders.
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Sharing Alice
Level: Intermediate
Time: 15 Minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to export your alice worlds into video format as well as use Alice's built in tools to print your code and create an Alice Webpage. Very useful for those of you that want to share your work but don't want to make others download Alice to view it.
Examples Created: Original Alice World, Code Page, Webpage, Movie
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout
Name: 3D Helium Molecule Tutorial
Level: Intermediate
Time: 1 Hour
Description: A tutorial that walks the learner through the creation of a helium molecule model. Topics covered include changing object properties, lists, billboards, and the vehicle property.
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Coloring Randomly: Random Selection
Level: Expert
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: Walks the learner through the creation of a world where the penguins change to one of four colors randomly and then the name of the color appears. Additional concepts covered include color changing, 3D text, and parameters.
Worlds: Start, Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Creating Simple Objects with Shapes and Textures: Texture Maps
Level: Expert
Time:45 minutes
Description: This tutorial teaches how to use texture maps to create new objects
by pasting pictures onto blank shape objects.You will learn how to make
a building, an American flag, and a person's head.
Worlds:
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout,
Exercises
Name: Timer Tutorial
Level: Expert
Time: 30 Minutes
Description: A tutorial that creates a timer that can count down and be used in developing games in Alice. Concepts used include variables and while loops, parameters, and functions.
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Piñata Game: Keeping Score in Alice
Level: Expert
Time: 45 Minutes
Description: This tutorial teaches you how to create an object to keep track of score in a game. You will implement a game that allows players to hit a swinging piñata with a bat.
Worlds:
Start,
Finished
Links:
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout
Name: Wizard Game: Class Level Variables
Level: Expert
Time: 45 Minutes
Description:A game in which a wizard must collect glowing gems. The wizard can teleport and magically locate gems. Create class level variables and use them to restrict the game as well as display them as the game is being played. Concepts include functions and if/else statements.
Worlds: Start, Finished
Links: Powerpoint, Slides (.pdf), Handout, Exercises
Name: Template World: Click on the match
Level: Intermediate
Time: Approx. 30-45 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to use a template world to create a quiz or game in which the user must click on the object that is the best match.
Template and Example Worlds:
Template World: match1.a2w,
match1 Example World
Template World: match2.a2w,
match2 Example World
Links for tutorial materials:
Worlds
Starting World,
Finished World
Download images
word1.jpg,word2.jpg,word3.jpg
Tutorials
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page),
Exercises
Name: Template World: Click on the object to answer
Level: Intermediate
Time: Approx. 30-45 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to import a template object to create a quiz or game in which the user must click on the object to answer the question.
Template Object and Example World:
quiz template object,
Example World
Links for tutorial materials:
Worlds
Starting World,
Finished World
Tutorials
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page),
Exercises
Name: Template Object: Quiz using 'ask user' functions
Level: Intermediate
Time: Approx. 30-45 minutes
Description: This tutorial shows you how to import a template object to create a quiz in which the questions are asked using the built in world 'ask user' functions .
Template Object and Example World:
quiz template object,
Example World
Links for tutorial materials:
Worlds
Starting World,
Finished World
Tutorials
Powerpoint,
Slides (.pdf),
Handout (2 per page),
Handout (4 per page),
Exercises
Name: Change Color of Chicken, and Randomly Change Color of Snowman
Level: Advanced
Time: 45 Minutes
Description: This tutorial shows how to write several funcions. The
theme is to click on the chicken and
change its color (in a cycle), and then click on the snowman and change
its color randomly.
World: Finished
Links: Powerpoint,
Slides
(.pdf), Handout (4 up),
Handout
(2 per page)
,
Exercises