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Software that teaches programming skills to kids in a fun and educational way

Software that teaches programming skills to kids in a fun and educational way

Vote: (1,571 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: MIT

Version: 450

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(1,571 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

MIT

450

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • This program was made especially to help kids learn how to program.
  • You have an active community that you can share your projects with.
  • Inspires children to learn critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Cons

  • The harsh learning curve does exist with this program, but it's worth looking past.

Walking hand in hand with the future, programming will have a lot of importance in the future of society. That's why initiatives have been made to help kids better understand how computer languages work. For example, Scratch Kids could be called an educational science tool aimed at helping the younger generation with learning the key concepts behind programming software.

Algorithmic Thinking Encouraged

What this program will do is encourage the algorithmic thinking of users. Through Scratch, you can design characters who will learn how to sing, dance or interact with each other. In fact, they can do a wide multitude of interesting actions to help kids learn how to program. When we look at Scratch, we're basically taking a graphical programming language and using it to code in a much easier fashion than what you might receive with the traditional programming languages. Another cool thing about this program is how you can use it to create a script that snaps the graphical blocks together, and you can use them to put together a puzzle.

Creating Images That Move

As you create the images that move, you might also choose the animated responses through the movements on the mouse. This helps kids learn how much creativity and fun they can have through programming and learning the language of a computer. Truly, there are few creative outlets where you can enjoy the same level of creativity like in programming where you add the music clips you want or add in the sound effects for specific tasks.

Learning Curve Exists

We do have a bit of a learning curve with this program, so it can take some time before you master Scratch Kids fully. However, that only adds to the level of depth, and if you look at how regular programming also has a steep learning, you won't feel disheartened at the prospect of learning it. The key difficulty of this program mostly comes from how you have many different features to check it. The program itself isn't necessarily impossible to learn. Once you have finished a project via Scratch, you can share your project on the website to see what others think. This also gives children the chance at connecting with a community involved in programming. They can meet like minds who inspire them to continue to learn programming.

Want to share your creation on Facebook? You can embed your project into some of these social media sites like Facebook, which lets you share with your friends and family. Scratch continues to encourage kids to learn to program, and at the same time, it inspires critical thinking and problem solving because those are some of the most essential skills to becoming a programmer.

Pros

  • This program was made especially to help kids learn how to program.
  • You have an active community that you can share your projects with.
  • Inspires children to learn critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Cons

  • The harsh learning curve does exist with this program, but it's worth looking past.