I had to log in and look around my old account, revisit the silly projects I made when I was 9 years old. Scratch wasn't my first exposure to programming (that would be batch scripting) but I still remember how fun it was to use and how it felt like I could make anything with it. I'm incredibly glad to see it still going strong.
Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
251–260 of 397 posts
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#252Scratch gets a lot of hate with semi-experienced programmers (the kind to browse this sub) because of its simplicity, but it's actually really good. It teaches you basic programming concepts without all of the complexity of other programming languages. I remember back in school, some of the students in my computer science classes didn't understand the basic concepts of programming: variables, loops, functions, etc. a…
My first CS course used Scratch to teach it and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than the C++ which followed and I certainly remember more from the experience. C++ was my introduction to pain.
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Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#253As a parent who used Scratch with their kids... it all started out great and then veered into being an unregulated social media network lacking any ability to create a space where they could build and learn to code in private. It wasn't long before they were doing it only for the likes and, without constant supervision, trying to figure out how to join various groups and challenges simply for the attention they would…
Code.org is more focused on learning and has some controls to lock down what they can and cannot access.
I use it in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades to teach kids coding at an elementary school.
It’s more setup for kid/teacher than kid/parent though so YMMV.
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#254It's almost embarrassing typing this but growing up as a "leet cod3r kid writing c++" I used to be a Scratch hater. It didn't dawn on me until much later that the RPG Maker VX I grew up with was just a different version of Scratch and visual programming :)
Keep kicking ass Scratch!
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#255Full disclosure: Principal Software Engineer here on the Scratch backend... Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages" system, it is based on the work and ideas of the Life Long Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (the director of this group is Professor Mitch Resnick, the LEGO, Papert Professor of Learning Research). The Papert part is where the term Mindstorms comes from ( https://www.a…
Just want to say thank you! Two of my kids are using scratch regularly (8yo and 6yo). We started using the rpi module and I was surprised how easy it was to start banging out pins to control some motors. The fact that they can use it on a desktop, on a tablet, and it is integrated at school is just fantastic.
I used Lego mindstorms ~15 years ago, and LabVIEW 10+ years ago. Scratch has much clearer concepts and patterns. I always found it difficult to teach students LabVIEW and mostly because of the UI. LabVIEW does have some advantages because of NI, but Scratch is superior IMO.
I'll eventually be transitioning my kids to text languages but there's no replacing the fun they are having with it right now.
Currently we reproduce a lot of apps from Scratch YouTubers. I have been meaning to check out more of the community aspects. Just curious if you have any suggestions on a good way to engage with more Scratch enthusiasts (kids focused).
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#256When people use scratch with their kids, what tutorials do they follow? Do they try and figure things out from first principles, or are their popular content creators who make stuff? How do people transition their kids from scratch to Python? From my experience teaching, it seems like it's really hard for kids to make that transition.
I follow https://www.youtube.com/@griffpatch
He has some amazing programs.
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a bummer. Open, anonymous, and free forums are some of the most interesting places on the internet. this profit-motivated antisocial shit makes me so sad. edit: oh. most if not all of the comments are from reddit.
https://lobste.rs/ has an interesting mechanism to curb bots on the platform. To join to website, you have to get a referral from another current user. And this referral is public information. So if someone you referred starts acting like an ass, then you can expect some concern being directed your way. People are rightly a bit cautious with giving out referrals as a consequence. The topics on lobste.rs are more focu…
The only downside is that people like myself are unlikely to know anyone who can supply an invite.
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#258[flagged]
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#259Full disclosure: Principal Software Engineer here on the Scratch backend... Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages" system, it is based on the work and ideas of the Life Long Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (the director of this group is Professor Mitch Resnick, the LEGO, Papert Professor of Learning Research). The Papert part is where the term Mindstorms comes from ( https://www.a…
Just want to say thank you! Two of my kids are using scratch regularly (8yo and 6yo). We started using the rpi module and I was surprised how easy it was to start banging out pins to control some motors. The fact that they can use it on a desktop, on a tablet, and it is integrated at school is just fantastic. I used Lego mindstorms ~15 years ago, and LabVIEW 10+ years ago. Scratch has much clearer concepts and patter…
Curious how you get a 6 year old started? What should I buy or do?
Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
#260My 8 yo loves Scratch. She's made over 30 apps with it and has had a great time. However, now that she's reached the limits of what it can do, I have been frustrated that there isn't a natural place for her to graduate to. And Scratch does get really limited quickly. There are unofficial forks like SheepTester's one which let you drop JavaScript into Scratch projects, but they're not easy to use. We've failed a few t…
I'd make a case for any node-based scripting language in 3D modeling software. Blender or Grasshopper for Rhino comes to mind. Benefit of Grasshopper is that there are convenient Python or C# nodes for you to write scripts that can't be expressed through nodes (IE loops); downside is that it is paid software (although not subscription based!!). For architecture/design students, Grasshopper is usual their first introd…
Unfortunately, Grasshopper is shutting down in June. https://support.grasshopper.app/t/grasshopper-is-shutting-do...