Easier variant

If the game Nim is played by the pupils with 8 pens, they should develop instructions for more pens for the machine. The number of pens should ideally be a multiple of 4.

Harder variant

The pupils can learn the slightly more complex variant of Nim and write corresponding instructions for the machine.

Follow-on project

It is also possible to program a Nim AI in Scratch. This can be done in three different ways:

1. by means of troubleshooting
2. by means of positive and negative reinforcement
3. by means of a value function

For this project, La Scientothèque in Brussels provides some excellent lesson material: All of the resources for the game Nim can be found here.

The programming activity in Scratch is explained from page 9. The Scratch application can be found here.