Scr0100: scratch overview

Table of contents

• Preface
  • General
    • A prediction
    • Where are the little leagues of computer science?
    • Some statistics
    • Many archived projects are readily available
    • Post, review, and comment
    • A world-wide phenomenon
    • Demographics
    • Not in organized classes
  • Viewing tip
    • Images
• Programming for many purposes
  • The Scratch player applet
  • Computer art by pandalecteur
    • Click the link to run the applet
    • Be sure to close the pages
    • What if the applets don't run?
  • Anime projects
  • Game projects
    • 3D games
    • A pseudo-3D animation
  • An animated story
  • The tip of the iceberg
• Scratch development environment
  • A sprite-oriented programming environment
  • Costumes
    • Walking-boy costumes
  • The stage
  • Controlling the behavior of a sprite
  • Drag and drop programming
  • Costumes and sounds
• The Scratch programming language
  • Music, music, music
  • The toolbox buttons and toolbox pane
  • High-level multimedia functionality
  • Program control
• Summary
• Resources
• Miscellaneous

Preface

General

This module is one in a collection of modules designed to help beginners of all ages (8 and up) learn how to create the code for computer programs. Information is provided not only for the beginners themselves but also for theirparents and teachers where appropriate.

The purpose of this module is to provide a high-level overview of the Scratch programming environment. Future modules will provide more detailed information about the programmingenvironment.

While this module is not intended to exclude the "older" beginners, much of the information contained in this module may be of more interest to the parentsand teachers of younger students who are wondering if they should allow the students in their charge to become involved in Scratch.

A prediction

It's probably safe to say that a large percentage of the professional athletes in the major leagues of sports are people who became involved in sportsin little league when they were quite young. It's probably also safe to say that a large percentage of successful professional musicians were eitherenrolled in serious musical instruction at an early age, or were involved as members of garage bands by their early teens.

I predict that in ten to fifteen years, computer science professionals and professionals in a variety of computer-related fields will be the people who arecurrently engaged in the little leagues of computer science .

Where are the little leagues of computer science?

One of the most important little leagues of computer science is centered in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab . This group has developed and is supporting a programming environment forbeginners called Scratch . According to MIT,

"Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and shareyour creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learnimportant mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design."