Scratch is a great first-time coding experience! It was developed by MIT as an educational tool for kids and adults who want to dive into creating awesome games and animations right away. It uses a simple interface and a block-style programming language to make getting started quick and easy. Its purpose as an educational tool means that there is a great community of learners, parents and educators who are really excited about making Scratch as accessible as possible. If you want to get started learning the basic concepts of coding, and have a lot of fun, Scratch is for you!
Where to start…
Scratch is available both as a cloud-based tool, and as downloadable software. Using the online platform gives you the opportunity to create a profile and share your work with others. Downloading the software can improve performance if your internet connection isn’t very fast.
Go to the Scratch website by clicking here. Sign up and start coding!
Download the software here. It’s available for Windows, MacOS and Linux!
Info & Tutorials…
Step-By-Step Intro – This walkthrough opens up right in the Scratch interface. Just click your way through! Or download as a PDF here.
Starter Projects – Each starter project lets you see inside a premade game, animation or story, and suggests ways for you to customize.
Scratch Cards – In the style of flash cards, each one tells you something you can do in Scratch on one side and how to do it on the other.
Scratch Wiki – Like any wiki, this contains a near overabundance of tips and articles by users, for users.
Videos…
MIT’s Video Tutorials – These videos cover a variety of topics from things to code in Scratch to how to create characters and backdrops.
YouTube – YouTube has an excellent selection of tutorials and how-tos. These include Scratch Ed, WPL Scratch Project and Kevin Briggs.
Example Projects…
User Projects – The Scratch website has an awe-inspiring selection of user created content. Explore these projects to learn and be inspired!