A person sitting at a table looking at a laptop computer.

Scratch Explorations

Computer science is a growing field, and getting kids interested and involved from a young age can help them see themselves in STEM.

Scratch is an easy-to-use online tool for all ages to start programming. In Scratch, students can get the chance to build their creativity and multimedia skills and learn some computer science. Scratch is free and accessible online at scratch.mit.edu. Your students don’t need an account to start creating, but signing up allows them to save their projects.

Our education team has created a series of videos leading you through basic Scratch projects. These videos are intended to be used by educators of all kinds—teachers, homeschoolers, informal science educators, and more.

Scratch Explorations: Surprise Project

Watch this video to learn how to create your first project with Scratch!  Scratch Surprise is an open-ended project designed as part of the Creative Computing Curriculum.

Scratch Explorations: Step-by-step

This screencast leads learners through a Scratch project that makes use of the Scratch tutorials. In Step by Step, you’ll learn about existing resources that can help guide you through making your own games, animations, and stories. This project was designed as part of the Creative Computing Curriculum.

Scratch Explorations: Teacher Account

In this screencast for teachers, you’ll learn how to sign up for a Scratch teacher account, which will enable you to set up classes and register your students.

Scratch Explorations: Interactive Collage Intro | Part 1

This intro will explain how to make an interactive collage to share knowledge about a book, movie, sport, ecosystem, or any other interest. Give it a try with this 3-part series. Learners can start here by learning how to add images to their projects. Note: we suggest making a mind map about the subject or interest before getting started. Interactive Collage is adapted from the “About Me” project in the Scratch Creative Computing Curriculum.

Interactive Collage Interactions | Part 2

Use Scratch to add code blocks to make collage pictures interactive. When clicking on a picture or pressing a key, the Scratch project can play a recording, change color/size/shape, and so much more. See what your students can make it do!

Interactive Collage Loops | Part 3

Learners can add loop blocks to code to make interactions repeat as many times as they want—even forever! This is the last video in the Interactive Collage series, and it will teach students how to use loops and where to add them in their collages.