Outreach: Scratch Classes 2022
Written by Alejandro Estrella
FRC Skywalkers, the Newark Library, and Student Bono collaborated to host a 4-week virtual Scratch class to 20 elementary students. The mentors (Alejandro Estrellla, Ujjawal Prasad, Karthik Subramanian, Enzo Emami, and Patrick Chou) compiled a curriculum that covers the basics of learning how to program by building on concepts on how to create a project using the website https://scratch.mit.edu. Ideally, our goal is to inspire younger individuals to gain the skills and interest in programming, and go above and beyond in expanding their creativity in creating their own games.
Prior to the 4 week course, the mentors worked together to cover each concept and apply knowledge from the previous classes to create a captivating project near the end. During the first class, we taught concepts such as adding sprites and backgrounds, using event blocks, adding movement blocks to make sprites change position, and using say blocks to make sprites talk. The second class was about sensing and sound blocks. In the third class, we added extensions like the sound and drawing extensions to make instruments play and use the pen to draw anything we want. During the last class, we used all the blocks we learned from the previous classes to create our own backgrounds and sprites, and using those, we made a maze with multiple levels.
Curriculum:
Week 1: Introduction to Scratch Classes + Get everyone registered on Scratch.mit.edu
Week 2: Learning Sensing and Sounding Blocks
Week 3: Incorporating Extensions
Week 4: Learning how to create your own Sprites and Background and Introduction to FIRST
Despite there being less students due to the class being online, it was very interactive in which multiple students were eager to share their scratch projects in class. By sharing our knowledge and helping the community to promote the values of FIRST, we were able to make an impact on increasing children’s passion in engineering. Not only was the course beneficial towards students, but as mentors, we enjoyed connecting with children who can make a positive impact towards spreading their interest in coding. As a team, we cannot wait to bring another opportunity for the next generation of FIRST students, possibly working with Patrick Brogan from Newark Library!
