Scratch an overview for teachers by W Hamilton

What is Scratch? Software designed to inspire children to learn how to program Multimedia focus It is free to download Simple to use, lots of examples included and in online (You Tube style) galleries Good fun!

When do I use scratch? KS3 - used for control, changes to KS3 should still allow us to use Scratchshould still allow us to use Scratch KS4 (DiDA) - Multimedia unit, audio, new games unit? AS computing initial lessons (limited) Lunchtime club End of term activities G&T sessions

What can it do then? Demo Cat & Ball - simple 1st lesson Helicopter game - good 2nd lesson Pong/filtering - More advanced, students need to think about the logic & maths Provided projects Online galleries

Cross curricular use for Scratch Science - sensors (hardware board £10) & simulations D&T - control Anywhere that powerpoinnt is used, but it enables decisions/simulation - i.e. students can create a story that simulates choices and consequences for a topic or a quiz

What else coud we use? Alice, Greenfoot - these are great programs that could follow on from an initial use of scratch Flowol - used in lower school Logo - used in lower school and Maths Flash - Great, but takes quite a bit of time to do anything effective

Useful links Just "google" for scratch - main website, download, galleries, help file, forumshttp://scratch.mit.edu/ - links, tutorials, things I've shown you todayhttp:// Alice - Greenfoot -