Learning computer science concepts with scratch

Abstract

Scratch is a visual programming environment that is widely used by young people. We investigated if Scratch can be used to teach concepts of computer science. We developed new learning materials for middle-school students that were designed according to the constructionist philosophy of Scratch and evaluated them in two schools. The classes were normal classes, not extracurricular activities whose participants are self-selected. Questionnaires and a test were constructed based upon a novel combination of the Revised Bloom Taxonomy and the SOLO taxonomy. These quantitative instruments were augmented with a qualitative analysis of observations within the classes. The results showed that in general students could successfully learn important concepts of computer science, although there were some problems with initialization, variables and concurrency; these problems can be overcome by modifications to the teaching process.

End-User Experiences of Visual and Textual Programming Environments for Arduino

“…There is a growing body of research into the efficacy of Scratch as a tool for learning to program. Several studies report that children and young people -both boys and girls -find Scratch engaging and fun to use, while successfully familiarising them with fundamental programming concepts without the distraction of syntax [7,13,14,16].There is also evidence of continued engagement with computer science. A positive first experience with programming in an environment with a low barrier to entry, like Scratch, can sustain enthusiasm and ease transition to more sophisticated languages, such as Java and C [13,21].…”

The abstraction transition taxonomy

“…Of the set of assessment questions reported in Meerbaum-Salant's Scratch paper [19] 60% of them fall in the 23 or 3 AT level. The course is therefore assessing the students' programming abilitycan students write or trace code, possibly given a storyboard or pseudocode description.…”

Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts: A Comparison of Scratch and Arduino

“…Multiple studies have been performed investigating the effectiveness of Scratch in teaching introductory programming concepts [44,46,47,49,53,54]. It works well for some concepts (loops and conditionals) but not for others (variables and functions) [49].…”

“…Multiple studies have been performed investigating the effectiveness of Scratch in teaching introductory programming concepts [44,46,47,49,53,54]. It works well for some concepts (loops and conditionals) but not for others (variables and functions) [49]. Scratch has still been accepted as a platform for teaching novice programmers in junior high [21], high school and at the university level [44,47,49,[53][54][55].…”

“…It works well for some concepts (loops and conditionals) but not for others (variables and functions) [49]. Scratch has still been accepted as a platform for teaching novice programmers in junior high [21], high school and at the university level [44,47,49,[53][54][55].…”