Students Scratch the Surface of Programming at Ormondale

Scratch code: the Pong game.
This school year, Lee Appelbaum, Technology Assistant at Ormondale School, has been working with first through third grade students, helping them create rich multi-media projects with an application called, Scratch. Scratch is a new programming language developed by MIT Media Lab researchers that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share these creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of programming and design. Scratch is available free of charge for download at http://scratch.mit.edu/.

The Pong game.
To date students have designed their own versions of the classic video game Pong, a working simulation of a dreidel, and an animation of the Fibonacci Sequence. Click here to view the growing collection of student projects.

Happy Holidays from the Tech Team!