Scratch is a wonderful
free program produced by MIT which lets you create little
animations that you can then publish to the MIT site (or to your
own site) for all to admire!
If you have access to YouTube videos (which
may not be the case at school) then take a look at this video presenting Scratch:
Scratch is built on Logo
so everything you can do in Logo you should also be able to do
in Scratch. Follow this link
to see a comparison of a simple program in Scratch and in Logo.
Compared to Logo, Scratch is more colourful, more fun, more
powerful and more open-ended. In fact it is so much more
powerful than Logo that a better comparison might be with Flash.
Like Flash, Scratch produces multimedia animations that can be
incorporated into web pages. It is unlike Flash in that:
It's free!
It is designed for
beginners or intermediate level aged 8-16 (it's also used in
the US even at university level with students who are new to
programming)
It works mainly by
dragging blocks into place to build a script
It is more limited
than Flash, and thus much easier to learn
It produces
animations in Java format rather than Flash format
It is produced by
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – a
guarantee of quality
It has the backing
of Microsoft and many other companies
Animations can be
published (shared) on the MIT site free of charge
There are plenty of
easy-to-understand lessons and tutorials available
There are plenty of
resources for teachers available
Another plus for our
students: it is available in many languages. To see what MIT has
to say about Scratch please follow these three links:
The same page has lots
of examples of Scratch animations, but they change regularly so
maybe it is better to look at the examples that come with the
program (click the Open button). Some of those are too simple to
be of interest so I recommend you check out these ones:
Animation
FunWithAnimation
EweAndMe
Aquarium
Games
Pong
Trampoline
FishChomp
BugOnAPlate
Doodle
MarbleRacer
Tetris
Greetings
SlideShow
Christmas
HappyBrithdayPooja
Interactive Art
PlayWithYourFace
GardenSecret
Lists
MelodyLists
Music and
Dance
BreakDance
OceanMusicBox
PianoMachine
Names
Wordo
ForMyLittleBrother
Tamara
Simulations
Pastor
BouncingMusicBalls
Follow this
link to see some animations I made myself in Scratch.
