IF YOU CAN put together a jigsaw puzzle, you can create a computer program using Scratch! With just a few clicks, you can have a bat fly around a castle, make a ninja sneak past a guard or conjure up a flock of butterflies floating through a garden.
Scratch was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab to help young students learn basic control and programming concepts (http://scratch.mit.edu). It is free to use and has become very popular throughout the world. There is even an International Scratch Day, which is held every year to celebrate and share the things people have created using the language.
Scratch is a graphical programming language. This means that, instead of writing text commands, you connect blocks of code together to make a script that makes something happen. You can use Scratch to create interactive stories and computer games in which you draw the scenery (called the stage) and the characters (called sprites). You can also create music and art with Scratch.
In this adventure, you’ll begin by creating the Scratch equivalent of a typical Hello World! computer program and making Scratch Cat say “Hello”. After that, you’ll create a program with a monkey who moves around the screen and changes his facial expression. Finally, you’ll create an entire role-playing game incorporating a variety of backgrounds and different ways to win points. ...