Scratch Is A Fun Way To Learn Programming

October 10, 2022, Post No 224

I first encountered scratch more than 10 years ago. I was teaching full-time back then. I wanted to introduce it to our school. However, it was not part of the curriculum. So, I lost my enthusiasm to explore it further.

Last year though, when a former co-teacher asked me to teach his students how to create mobile apps using MIT's App Inventor 2, the interface was too familiar to me. App Inventor is a block-based programming development for mobile apps. Scratch is also block-based.

Although it was the first time I saw App Inventor, the development process is almost the same as that of Scratch.

Greetings once again my dear readers. If any of you here wanted to learn to program even if you have no prior knowledge in programming, I highly recommend exploring Scratch. Scratch is an easy and fun way to learn to program.

Fortunately this year, I have a little freedom in choosing what to teach. Thus I decided to introduce Scratch to the 10th grade.

What Is Scratch?

Scratch is a high-level block-based programming language. Unlike other visual programming languages like Visual Basic, the developer can create a program without writing a single line of code. How is that possible?

In Scratch, the commands are coded are presented as blocks. The blocks are dragged to and arranged in the coding area to manipulate the "spites" (or objects) and the whole program.

Sprites are images or objects in the program. Each Sprite can have its own set of codes or procedures.

What Can You Do With Scratch

Although Scratch is not a full programming development platform, it can be used to introduce the principles of programming even to young learners. With Scratch, you can create games, stories, animations, and other projects.

Why Scratch?

Scratch is graphical. The main object(s) in each program or project is/are the sprite(s) which are often images or illustrations that can be animated. The developer, called scratchers by the development community, can even create their sprites.

No Need To Write Codes.

This is the amazing part. Scratchers don't need to write the codes. They are already available in the form of blocks. To create the script or procedure, all you need is to drag the code into the coding area and arrange them accordingly.

This way, the learners will be able to understand the plus of programming without the burden of memorizing the purpose and functions of different objects, commands, and functions, syntax, etc...

Interlude

Question: Why is it necessary to follow the proper syntax in programming?

Answer: Syntax helps us to make clear sentences that “sound right,” where words, phrases, and clauses each serve their function and are correctly ordered to form and communicate a complete sentence with meaning.  Thus it is necessary to programming

I got that answer from a few of my students. *LOL*

Tutorial Site.

Scratch is one of the topics that I have included in my tutorial site http://learn2code.gilect.net. It's the first of the few topics that I am writing about. Hopefully, by the time you visit my site, I have already uploaded one or two tutorials regarding Scratch.

In Closing

Scratch is an innovative programming platform. It can be accessed directly through their website https://scratch.mit.edu. Though it was designed to introduce programming to kids as young as 8 years old, even teenagers can still have fun while creating their programs.

It can be the initial platform to learn to program. The more serious developers can then jump to App Inventor 2 or Kodular.

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Thanks For Reading

Reference: Syntax - https://wise-answer.com/why-is-syntax-important-in-linguistics/

All images are mine unless otherwise specified.

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