Scratch PDF course

Getting started with Scratch software

What if you teach your students computer programming with a playful and intuitive teaching tool? And if computer concepts became a game accessible to all, from an early age? For those who do not know it yet, there is free software that introduces students from the age of 8 to fundamental concepts in mathematics and computer science.

The Scratch software is based on a simplified and entertaining algorithmic approach, to help teachers set up creative and cooperative activities and develop the reasoning skills of their students. Using Scratch also allows you to share your various works on the web.

Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, this simplified programming language facilitates numerical simulations and their sharing. It allows to create a multitude of educational resources such as games, interactive stories, animations ...

Teaching with Scratch is an optimal method to allow the teacher to set up a motivating learning activity based on real situations.

Scratch is a dynamic language that allows code modification, even when running. Focused on a multimedia pedagogy, it allows the student to become familiar with the basic concepts of programming such as loops, tests, assignments of variables and especially the integration of multimedia objects such as sounds and videos .

The Scratch software also allows to directly visualize its code, which is registered in the student's native language (twenty are available). This one is visible in the form of bricks of colors (variables in red, movement in blue ...)

This teaching tool of programming is a free software that allows the teacher to develop a fun and interactive learning. Thus, it promotes the development of creative thinking and stimulates intellectual curiosity among young people. It has tremendous potential for understanding the programming environment at all levels of education (even higher education) and can also be used in remediation activities.

Scratch language presentation

Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a new programming language that facilitates the creation of interactive stories, cartoons, games, musical compositions, digital simulations and their sharing on the Web.

Scratch is free software designed to introduce students, from the age of 8, to fundamental concepts in mathematics and computer science. It is based on a playful approach to algorithmic, to help them create, reason and cooperate. It also promotes sharing on the web. From 2007, the website has been opened to allow all on the one hand, to publish, so to share, his projects on the Web, and on the other hand to provide support for the implementation of Scratch.