Transcript Scratch for Budding Computer Scientists

SCRATCH FOR
BUDDING COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS
Yu-Chu Chen
Malan, D. J. & Leitner, H. H. (2007). Scratch for budding
computer scientists. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 39(1), 223-227.
Introduction
• Problem:
• Students remain distracted on programming language.
• Languages like Java challenge students to master
programmatic overhead before programming itself.
• Why use Scratch?
• Authors find remarkable potential for higher education.
• Allows to master programmatic constructs and to focus on
problems of logic before syntax.
• Viewed as a gateway for students to languages like Java.
• Compared to others, is unrestricted and lower learning curve.
Introduction
• Participants:
• 25 participants.
• Harvard Summer School’s Computer Science for 8 weeks.
• Purpose:
• Not to improve scores but instead to improve first-time
programmers’ experiences.
Programming concepts
DEPLOYING SCRATCH
• Lecture 1
• Introduce programming’s most fundamental constructs.
• Present each construct in pseudo-code and then Scratch.
• Problem set 1
• A challenge of few requirements and few limits.
• Lecture 2
• Examined students’ submissions and preview Java.
• Problem set 2
• Share and reflect.
Results
• Surveys were questions about students’ prior
programming background, experience with Scratch,
and subsequent acclimation to Java.
• Prior programming experiences:
• 52% no background, 16% strong background and 32% weak
background.
• Experience with Scratch among 25 participants:
• 19 (76%) felt that it was a positive influence,
• 2 (8%) felt that it was a negative influence,
• 4 (16%) felt that it was not an influence.
Conclusion
• Scratch provide not every construct in Java.
• Once hooked by Scratch, students can still be handed to Java.
• Scratch excite students at a critical time ,and
familiarizes the inexperienced among them with
fundamentals of programming without the
distraction of syntax.