Scratch is an online kid-friendly coding website. It allows students to learn a coding language through drag and drop coding commands. My Education Cohort was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the coding workshop put on by KCJ. We were taught the basic commands, which I included as a video below (which includes a little joke from the Disney Channel movie Sky High).

What we were also shown, is that there is no limit to what you can do with scratch. What I really enjoyed from the presentation, and in the book “Lifelong Kindergarten” by Mitchel Resnick was the idea of play. Allowing students to use Scratch to build things from their own imagination. In addition, after showing the students the basics, allowing them to play and discover / learn new functions or commands to accomplish their goals.

I think that Scratch allows for a simple application of ASTD component of the curriculum along side any subject.

For example:

  • Math: you may want students to learn graphing and the use of coordinate points –> students could create a scratch project or game.
  • English: during literary analysis –>you could have a student create a storyboard representing the important components of a story or plot or even an extension on what happens next.
  • Humanities: when students are understanding maps and distances    –>students could create a map and having a plane travel between points.

Overall, I think that the application of scratch to the other subjects is interesting. But what I think is even more important to me, is the idea of teaching coding to students in such an approachable way. Computer science and coding is definitely one of the largest growing industries in right now. So giving students a chance to experience what they can build through coding seems like a good way of seeing if they enjoy it. I also think that using school resources to allow students the time and space explore and understanding coding is essential, since not all students will have access or time to learn coding outside of school. Therefore wouldn’t have the exposure to know if that we something they would be interested in for higher education. So, knowing all of this, I  was nervous about students who would ask or wonder about coding since I have no background in computer science. However, this program is an easy enter point, that I could understand and feel comfortable presenting to students in class.