Scratch Day on the Limestone Coast

Scratch is a programming language developed at the MIT Media Lab. Middle school students can design, create and share interactive stories, games, colourful animations and other projects. The Scratch website, highlighting its 'imagine, program, share' vision, currently hosts 425809 projects (total 10,791,782 scripts, 3,329,676 sprites and 65,827 contributors).

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".

World Scratch Day (09) was celebrated on May 16. The 'Limestone Coast Scratchers' from the south east of South Australia joined in this highly successful event.

(It) "was ... an opportunity for students who would benefit from an event that would extend them in their Higher Order Thinking skills and who had the capacity to take their learning back to their respective school and teach their peers."

This Limestone Coast regional event, with 13 teams of Year 6/7s, was hosted by Grant High School (South Australia) and was one of over 100 global events for World Scratch Day. Feedback suggests it was an outstanding success which augurs well for a successful repeat event in 2010.

Read the Scratch Day 09 Report wiki for a comprehensive picture of the aims, program (including activities links), mentor support, outcomes and feedback.

Congratulations to all!

Celebrating Scratch

Great post by Jennifer Nelson in the School Library Journal, 1 May, 2009, about Celebrating Scratch in Libraries (Creation software helps young people develop 21st-century literacy skills)
Jennifer provides a compelling case for schools and libraries to come on board.

Scratch (a free download) is ....

"changing the landscape of how young people learn programming, engage in media-based project creation, and develop 21st-century literacy skills. "

The potential for collaboration and networking via the website (imagine, program, share) and use of Creative Commons Licensing are terrific features.

Smartcopying (Australia) has produced a highly recommended resource, a Creative Commons Information pack, to assist teachers and students operating in a digital world where digital content can be created, copied, shared, re-mixed, peer reviewed and communicated rapidly in a variety of ways.

Jennifer's post about Scratch is very timely, given that World Scratch Day is fast approaching (May 16). As you will see from the map, the Limestone Coast Scratchers (from the South East of South Australia) are participating in this event.

Grant High School, on the Limestone Coast, has a focus on HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) and Scratch Day plays a role as one of their strategies in developing students' HOTS.