Scratch

Hi.  I started what I'm calling a "junior technology club" at my kids' school.  We use currently and exclusively use Scratch as the vehicle for teaching technology.  Although it's called a club, it's really a class that we hold after school fortnightly (biweekly).  The ages range from 2nd grade to 6th grade.  We have 13 children in the club, three adults (including myself and I spend most of my time lecturing) and one "super user" child we also helps other students.  The sessions are 45 minutes long and not a single child has quit the club since it started.

I'm a computer science person by training (MS in CS).  I love CS.  But I'm not an educator and I have some questions.

1.  What is the optimal length of time to have these "classes?"  45 minutes was my initial guess but it seems to me that the kids could go much longer.

2.  What is a reasonable ratio of "structured" instruction to "unstructured" instruction.  During the structured instruction, I have the students perform very directed tasks.  During the unstructured instruction, they can do things like change the color of the sprites, backgrounds, etc.  So far, I've been keep it about 70% structured.

3.  I've been thinking about having a competition -- best Scratch program or something like that.  Is competition, particularly for this age group, a good or a bad thing?

4.  For the end of the academic year, each child will post their creation to the scratch web site and be able to show their parents/friends.  How important is this parental involvement, etc.?

Thank you for your feedback.

rrauscher <------A-T------>  PSU.EDU