| Title: | PRODUCT WARNING: Scratch is highly engaging and contagious |
| Speaker: | George Stockman Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan |
| Abstract: |
Scratch is a visual programming environment that makes programming
accessible to kids 10 years old and up. Sprites are objects that have
color, shape, etc. and can be moved about on a stage by programming
coordinate locations. Moreover, sprites can make sounds, can change
costume, and can have their behavior timed by messages sent by other
sprites. Scratch provides menus of explicit commands and control
structures that the programmer (script writer) uses to create a
program or behavior. Creating a script is "lego-like" so the programmer
has a visual guide to the language components. Programming is thus
drag-and-drop and filling in parameters, such as the number of times to
repeat a loop. Scratch has a rich set of sprites, sounds, backgrounds, and
example games, stories, and simulations for "plug-and-play". It has been
used in CS1 at Harvard to introduce students to programming and
multimedia.
It has also become a common topic in tech camps for kids, as it has been
at ITEC-Lansing.
Those with laptops can download Scratch from scratch.mit.edu and bring it to the talk to work along with the speaker. |
| Location: | Palenske 227 |
| Date: | 4/8/2010 |
| Time: | 3:10 pm |
@abstract{MCS:Colloquium:GeorgeStockman:2010:4:8,
author = "{George Stockman}",
title = "{PRODUCT WARNING: Scratch is highly engaging and contagious}",
address = "{Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium}",
month = "{8 April}",
year = "{2010}"
}