WHY SCRATCH?
Scratch appeals to both boys and girls, and to learners of all ages. It is engaging and accessible to first graders, and (rather remarkably) is also used in computer science courses at Harvard and Berkeley. Developed by MIT with funding from the National Science Foundation, it can be downloaded for free from the Scratch website, allowing our students to work on projects between classes, and to teach Scratch to their siblings and friends. Here are a few resources that give a great feel for Scratch. The video (3 minutes long) is especially enjoyable for parents and children.
Scratch Video (MIT)
Scratch Article (New York Times)
Scratch Website (MIT)
THE SCRATCH WEB SITE
The Scratch website is the hub of a worldwide community of Scratch creators. Children in over 150 countries use Scratch to create and share projects, and the site has over 2,000,000 Scratch projects posted by students. The site also contains galleries of ″featured projects″ curated by MIT′s Scratch Team. The site is a rich source of on-line support and of information for students, parents and educators. Here is a description of Scratch from its designers at MIT:
″As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.″
Watching the Scratch Video and reading the New York Times article will give you an excellent feel for Scratch. If you have further questions about Scratch or about Myers Learning, please contact