Scratch is a visual programming language that makes it easy for students to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art - and share their creations on the web. It is a fun and interesting way to introduce software development to students.

Comprehensive teaching materials, developed by teachers for teachers, as part of the Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, Education and Outreach Programme, have been endorsed by the Department of Education and Science, Transition Year Support Service (TYSS) and are available for download at www.scratch.ie

A new Student Workbook has recently been introduced which allows teachers to use and teach the Scratch module with students of all ages. Schools that have already planned their TY or after-schools activities can introduce Scratch to individual students using the self-study workbook.

Students will:

• Learn computer programming
• Learn mathematical and computational ideas
• Build their own games, stories, art, music and animation

Teachers will:

• Pick and choose what to teach from a set of 10 modules to suit their needs
• Introduce their class to a free software tool called Scratch, developed by the MIT Media Lab
• Offer new and exciting experience to students

The Scratch Competition 2011 National Final was held on 21st May in IT Tallaght. Students submitted projects in which they designed and created their own games, animation,simulation and music projects. Judges feedback on the entries was excellent, check out the results here.

For more information on this project:

Tel: 061 202434

Email: info@scratch.ie

Web: www.scratch.ie