Scratch
Scratch is a free, on-line, visual programming environment where students (and teachers) can code animations, interactive stories and simple games.
Coding is a very good way to develop the 21st century skills of creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking. Within the Scratch environment, students can share their ideas and bring them to life in creative and meaningful ways. As they create, they also need to solve problems. The community nature of Scratch through sharing and remixing allows students to learn from others, in their own school and beyond, in order to create digital solutions to problems they care about.
As Scratch requires Flash, a laptop or desktop computer is required to use the program.
Coding is a very good way to develop the 21st century skills of creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking. Within the Scratch environment, students can share their ideas and bring them to life in creative and meaningful ways. As they create, they also need to solve problems. The community nature of Scratch through sharing and remixing allows students to learn from others, in their own school and beyond, in order to create digital solutions to problems they care about.
As Scratch requires Flash, a laptop or desktop computer is required to use the program.
Creating a Scratch Account
Creating a Scratch account is free and simple; however, teachers may wish to consider applying for a Teacher Account so that they can set up activities and groups and monitor student progress more easily.
To create your account and get started, visit scratch.mit.edu.
To create your account and get started, visit scratch.mit.edu.
Students should be guided in setting up accounts (or teachers can create accounts in bulk using a .csv file) to ensure that they do not give away any personal information when setting up their accounts.
Coding Concepts
Within the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, a number of key concepts are introduced in the primary school years:
Other concepts that may be developed through coding activities include:
- sequencing (algorithms)
- branching (decisions)
- user input
- iteration (repetition)
Other concepts that may be developed through coding activities include:
- variables
- functions