Course Overview

As part of this development track you will work on a number of different interactive games and animations designed by CodeClub. Through these Scratch tutorials your child will explore fundamental coding techniques and strengthen their reasoning, problem solving and analytical skills. As you progress through these tutorials with your child, they will learn to build interactive stories, single or multiplayer games and electronic greeting cards.

Scratch is a visual programming language and online community targeted primarily at children. Using Scratch, users can create online projects and make them into anything by coding with simple blocks. When they are done or when the desire to, they then share and can discuss their creations with each other. Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, the service is designed to help children (ages 8 and up) learn to imagine, reason with common sense, and work with computers. Scratch so far has been translated into 70+ languages and is used in homes, schools, and after-school clubs in every country in the world. Scratch is often used in teaching coding, computer science, and computational thinking. Teachers also use it as a tool across many other subjects including math, science, history, geography, and art.

As of May 2018, there were more than ~31 million projects shared, ~28 million registered users registered, ~150 thousand comments posted, ~4.5 million studios created. The blocks-based grammar of Scratch has influenced many other programming environments and is now considered a standard for introductory coding experiences for children.

About the Author

Scratch is designed by The Lifelong Kindergarden group at MIT, Media Labs. The Lifelong Kindergarden group develops new technologies and activities that, in the spirit of the blocks and finger paint of kindergarten, engage people in creative learning experiences. Their ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative people, who are constantly inventing new possibilities for themselves and their communities. You can learn more about The Lifelong Kindergarden Group at MIT at the following website – Lifelong Kindergarden Group.