What Is Scratch?

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Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Scratch is a highly engaging language that allows young students to create simple programs and games. Students use a drag and drop interface of "code blocks" to create sound, movement and actions to objects called "sprites."The friendly user interface allows students to learn the basics of programming without the possibility of making and Syntax errors (Errors that are in the code such as missing commas or brackets). It is a great introduction to Objects in programming and has even been used with older students struggling with the basics of programming. Scratch also requires and builds upon the users problem solving and rational thinking skills which can be applied to most subjects and real life situations.

The video below is a great introduction to what scratch was designed for and why it is beneficial to students.

Scratch is available free of charge: go to Download.
Currently available for Mac OSX and Windows. Note: The program has to be downloaded and installed and may require network administrators rights to computers.

References

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/About_Scratch Accessed 22/09/09