The first workshop in PodCamp Barcelona 2010 will be: Scratch programming workshop for kids from 8-99
The workshop, led by Eugeni Català from Scratch Català, will take place from 18:00 to 20:00 on September 13 at Els Viensos.
What is Scratch?
Scratch is a fun visual programming language created by people at MIT and focused on youngsters from 8-99. With it you can create interactive stories, animation, games, music, art. Your imagination is the only limit.
The main character is the cat Scratch, but it is possible to use other existing figures or create new ones to use in the projects.
"Construction blocks" are arranged by type and colour to make it easy to follow the programme and have to be placed in the corresponding space for the cat to do what is desired on the stage.
Once the programme has been made it can be posted to the MIT website so everybody can see and enjoy it — you'll be surprised by the number of people who'll be interested in your project. There are more than 1,209,000 projects which can be learned from as all our public and can be downloaded to see how they were created without any type of limitation, everybody shares their work and the community learns together.
It really teaches knowledge and experience sharing in an open and collaborative way.
How does programming help kids education?
Programming helps in the acquisition and improvement of mathematical concepts such as coordinates, variables and random numbers as well as comparisons and conditions. It also stimulates creative expression, logical thinking and the use of new technologies. This knowledge will open the door to future professions.
Many schools are incorporating this discipline in their curriculums, thereby achieving the development and improvement in the process of design and creation. Kids begin with an idea, create a prototype, experiment with it, evaluate what doesn't work well, look for collaboration with others to finally revise and redesign.
