Programming for Kids Using Scratch (Ages 9 - 14)

In this 12-week course, students will be introduced to the common code blocks in Scratch. They will learn a variety of computational concepts that will help them develop as logical and creative thinkers. They will create projects such as interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art with Scratch. 

We will cover the following topics:

     Week 1 Scratch Tour + Motion: Students will tour the Scratch interface and receive step-by-step instructions that walk them through how to position and make sprites move and how to save their work.

     Week 2 Dance Celebration: Students learn how to create animated effects with costume sprites.

     Week 3 Opera Creation: Students will learn how to make sprites communicate with each other using sounds, speech, and thought bubbles.

     Week 4 Creative Storytelling: Students will learn about backdrops, the stage script editor, and broadcasting commands to create an animated story.

     Week 5 Music Creations: Students will learn about the music extension and how to add, code, and manipulate notes to play a song or create their own melody.

     Week 6 Pencil Creations: Students will add the pen tools extension, code a sprite to follow their mouse, and how to draw with a sprite.

     Week 7 Logical Blocks: Students will learn about sensing commands and how to use it to ask for information from the user. They will also be introduced to conditional statements such as the (If... then) statement.

     Week 8 Cloning Creations: Students will learn about clones and how to create and control them using the sensing command.

     Week 9 The Wizard: Students are introduced to variables. They will create a game that includes the previous concepts they have learned such as cloning, sensing, and variables.

     Week 10 Understanding Lists: Students learn about lists and will create an interactive program that also includes sensing, variables, broadcasting, If...then, and If...else loops.

     Week 11 Illusions: Students create the illusion of their sprite flying through the air while they try and make it dodge obstacles. 

     Week 12 Video sensing: Students learn how to use the video sensing extension. They program a sprite to react to video motion.