Why ScratchJR? While Scratch is a fantastic interface for students who can read, kids younger than eight often confront difficulty understanding the concepts in Scratch. And those students that cannot read but have enough curiosity to explore can get frustrated when trying to navigate Scratch. For those, the Developmental Technologies (DevTech) Research Group at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University developed ScratchJR.
Scratch
Scratch is the world’s largest children’s programming community and a programming language. A simple interface allows young people to create digital stories, games, and animations. Scratch is designed, developed, and moderated by the Scratch Foundation and promotes computational thinking and problem-solving skills, creative teaching and learning, self-expression and collaboration, and equality in computing. Scratch will always be free and free and is available in more than 70 languages.
ScratchJr
ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that allows young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children can learn about sequence and repetition by putting together graphical programming blocks to make the characters move, jump, dance, and sing.
Besides, kids can modify the characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, and even insert their photos. Finally, children use the programming blocks to bring the characters to life.
ScratchJr was inspired by the popular Scratch programming language (scratch.mit.edu), used by millions of young people (ages eight and up). They designed the interface and programming language to make them developmentally appropriate for younger children. They design features carefully to match young children’s cognitive, personal, social, and emotional development.
ScratchJr is a free app for iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks. For more information about ScratchJr, see scratchjr.org.
Another reason for waiting to introduce Scratch is that the Scratch community is generally much more mature than a 5 to 7-year-old.
When choosing ScratchJR.
So you know what Scratch is and what is ScratchJr yet, but the question stays. When must I use one or another?
The principal factors are Age, Reading Level, Math level, maturity level, and interest.
-
Age– The creators recommend age groups. For ScratchJR, 5-7 years old, and for Scratch, 8-16 years old.
-
Reading Level– it is easier to understand the Scratch function block if the kids can read. But the kids under age 8 struggle with the reading and higher-level concepts in Scratch.
- Math Level Most schools don’t teach the coordinate plane until 4th or 5th grade. But students who go deeper into Scratch must know about the coordinate plane to organize their project designs. They are totally confused when you try to teach a 2nd grader the coordinate plane.
-
Maturity Level– Although the Scratch Community is a safe and kid-friendly environment, young children and their parents may find the open-format community confusing for very young kids.
-
Interests– If your child is in between Scratch and ScratchJr, one other factor to consider is their level of interest in coding. For example, a highly motivated child to learn and do more might find the challenge and possibilities of Scratch much more exciting. On the other hand, if your child is not as interested in coding, ScratchJr might be a better way to introduce coding concepts to them simply.
Final Thoughts
Based on the previous factors you can decide which is better for your children. Both are winner options to develop solve-problem and computational thinking.
When kids learn to code, they learn to create and express themselves with a computer, learn to solve problems, design projects, and develop cognitive skills essential for later academic development. With ScratchJr / Scratch, kids aren’t just learning to code; they’re coding to learn.
Related Posts
Easy games to create on Scratch step-by-step
Scratch programming examples for beginners.
Easy Scratch Project: Let’s do it
Related Products