Scratch Coding & the Engineering Design Process (Beginner, Ages 6-7)
This 6-week class will enable students to learn basic skills in MIT's Scratch coding program. This course is intended for students who have never used Scratch before!
Afifa Saleem
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:(40)
What's included
6 live meetings
5 in-class hoursClass Experience
In this course, students will learning basic coding in MIT's Scratch platform (https://scratch.mit.edu/) while also learning about the iterative engineering design process. This process involves identifying the problem, brainstorming solutions, prototyping, testing solutions and critiquing them. Students will be able to put their 'engineering hard hats' on to think systematically, logically and consider a variety of factors when choosing design solutions for their Scratch project. Each week, students will learn to use and experiment with new elements on the Scratch interface. Each lesson will involve a tutorial of the element uses, experimentation and a mini-project applying these elements. The schedule for each week is as follows: Week 1 - Sprites & Costumes [Project: a self-portrait] Week 2 - Backdrops [Project: story-telling] Week 3 - Motions [Project: a dance routine] Week 4 - Sensing [Project: simple catch game] Week 5 - Variables [Project: soccer game] Week 6 - Speaking & Thinking Project: autobiographies] My role in this class will be to enable students to apply their creativity in a productive way - while also learning key skills in design thinking, such as brainstorming, prototyping and communicating design solutions. In addition, as an engineer, I will take a small portion of the class to discuss potential career options in engineering - and where engineering design would be applied in these career options. **Note: This class is for beginners who have little or no in-class experience with Scratch. For intermediate and advanced classes, please check out my other courses.**
Learning Goals
Students will learn how to code using Scratch.
Students will learn and apply the engineering design process.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Dear Parents & guardians,
This class uses 1 External Platform, Scratch, which requires parental consent before use by children under the age of 13. Please ensure you review the privacy policy here: https://scratch.mit.edu/privacy_policy.
In order to ensure we make the best of the class, I would like to request that your child (1) has a new Scratch project open and ready at the start of class and (2) is comfortable with spelling, using the mouse & keyboard and the Zoom Screen Share feature. Scratch can be accessed here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted.
This course is designed such that each week focuses on a new project and does not depend on the previous week. However, students like to save their work and view it again. Saving Scratch projects will not be taught in the class - if you would like to save your child's work, please ensure this is done before or after each class. There are 2 ways to do this:
1. Download the project each time. This one is difficult for students as they would have to find it in the downloads folder and use the same device each time. This is also limited to desktop.
2. Create a Scratch account. This one automatically saves new projects, and students don’t have to worry about saving their projects each time. It would be necessary, however, to login to the scratch account each week before class.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Best regards,
Afifa
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Joined April, 2020
5.0
40reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I am an engineer with over 10 years of teaching experience. I enjoy bringing complex engineering concepts to younger students in an un-intimidating way, to encourage exposure to STEAM fields. Reviews
Live Group Class
$102
for 6 classes1x per week, 6 weeks
50 min
Completed by 9 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 6-7
3-4 learners per class
