I teach computers in a 7-12th grade school. I have a semester course for the high school kids that uses GameMaker, but when I learned about Scratch it looked perfect for the 7th/8th grade kids. I mainly teach the high school classes - in fact, I haven't had 7/8th grade class in years now, although I do coach them in soccer - but what I've read about Scratch has me interested in running a cycle class using it. (Our cycles are 5-6 weeks and there are 5-6 each year, as they also do art, basic computer skills, reading, and some other stuff.) Anyway, I proposed it to our vice principal - who's also the head of the middle school group - last spring, then again this year. He came up to me a half hour ago and said he was really interested in the idea and wants a course name. Now *that* has me excited!
So...I need a course name for a 5-6 week cycle class in Scratch. Thoughts? How about ideas of concepts that you think I can cover with a group of 7/8th graders (of all learning levels)?
Thanks!
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You can call it "Scratch Club". I know of a few Scratch Clubs in a couple of Middle Schools.
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If you need a descriptive name, "Programming video games in scratch" would probably draw kids in. "computer animation using scratch" may be a bit more attractive to middle school girls (depending on the culture at your particular school).
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Totally agree with kevin. Avoid putting an emphasis on video games if you are trying to get a more even gender distribution.
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For a course name, something like "Introduciton to Software Development using MIT's Scratch" sounds good to me. After all, you want everyone to know that it's something more than another computer ap's class. As for a starting point for what to cover, I'm quoting this from another thread on this forum:
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There's a document that's been referenced here before (http://scratch.mit.edu/files/program-concepts-v5.doc) that lists the programming concepts in Scratch, and gives some very brief examples of the concepts. They aren't projects, but they might be a good start.
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Hey gang -
Thanks for all the suggestions. I do appreciate it.
I actually don't have to worry about people signing up for the course because - should it happen - it will be a cycle class here, which means every 7th (and maybe 8th) grader will be learning Scratch for 5-6 weeks. (Other cycles include things like Wood Tech, Dance, Art, etc.) Despite that, I think I like "Introduction to Computer Animation Using Scratch", although I wouldn't be surprised if administration changed it to "Computer Animation". Such is life.
Keep the suggestions on content coming. I did check out the page that was referenced and will likely use that as a guide, but anything you guys have to suggest will be welcome.
Thanks again,
Blair Buscareno
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I don't have a curriculum (after-school drop-in), but you can check out what my Tech Club has been doing:
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/tech_club/
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Hi Kevin,
Thank you for posting the above link . Your Volume 1 newsletters really helped me introduce Scratch to my daughters in a fun and productive way.
However, the links to the Volume 2 newsletters (from my browser, at least) direct to a page saying this:
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Page Not Found - 404 Error
The page you requested was not found.
The missing page has been logged. If possible, it will be found or replaced.
Directories above the resource you were looking for may contain more information. The links below might be useful:
/%7Ekarplus/tech_club/
/%7Ekarplus/
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I'd love to read these newsletters, and thank-you for every you've done with Scratch
Dale
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Links fixed! Thanks for letting me know. I had changed the capitalization of pdf files since last year without noticing.
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