The Snap! Arcade activity combines an arcade game developed in Snap! with a physical arcade control panel (including buttons, joystick, and a low-cost microcontroller) programmed in MicroBlocks. The hardware consists of a single-board computer (e.g. Raspberry Pi), the control panel, and a display, all housed in a physical enclosure. The MicroBlocks “Key and Mouse” library, developed by Bernat Romagosa, allows the microcontroller to send control events from the microcontroller to the Raspberry Pi in response to user actions.
The basic proof-of-concept format developed for this educational activity has served as a framework for implementation in a number of different settings, including a high school engineering course and a summer engineering academy.
Ryan Novitski, the International Technology and Engineering Education Association (ITEEA) Director of STEM Learning, piloted the Snap!Arcade in one week ITEEA workshop with 15 elementary and middle school teachers in 2023. The teachers were technology novices. Only one teacher had any prior experience with scripting or coding. All of the teachers were successful in designing and building an arcade game using MicroBlocks and Snap! One of the teachers wrote:
“My arcade control bar was a success! I had a ‘wow’ moment, because who would have thought in a million years that I was going to create a game control for an arcade. I feel like I can invent a new gaming system now!”
Resources to help educators lead a Snap!Arcade are available in the Educational Manufacturing project repository: