In the United States, the concept of STEAM education is widely recognized and applied. From a relatively young age, children begin to accept science, technology, mathematics, art and other aspects of enlightenment and edification.
In 2018, The State Council issued the Development Plan for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence, proposing to improve the artificial intelligence education system, set up AI-related courses in primary and secondary schools, and gradually promote programming education. In the same year, the National Computer Rank Examination began to include Python content. Since then, some provinces have increased the emphasis on programming in their education reforms. Shandong province has included Python in its information technology textbooks for the sixth grade of primary school, and Guangdong province plans to include information technology in the college entrance exam.
In addition to school education, children’s programming training has mushroomed out of school and developed rapidly. Many training institutions have opened relevant courses on children’s programming.
Why do you want to learn programming?
Learning to code has at least a few benefits for kids.
When learning to code, a child becomes a good thinker. For example, a child will learn how to break a complex problem into its simple parts (divide-and-conquer), how to find a problem and debug and solve it, and how to iterate, refine and improve a solution over time. And all of these thinking strategies are, in a word, the concept of computational thinking. Unconsciously, children’s computational thinking has been developed, logical thinking ability has been enhanced.
2. Develop your child’s concentration and carefulness
3. Increase children’s abstract thinking ability
4. Enhance children’s ability to think and solve problems
5. Develop a sense of identity and accomplishment
Programming has so many benefits for kids, so what are you waiting for? Take the opportunity to let your child learn and master the skill of fluent expression in this way!
2. Why do children learn Scratch when learning programming?
The classification and hierarchy of the various programming languages is shown below.
You might ask, why not just learn a high-level language like C, C++, or Python instead of a visual language like Scratch? This is mainly because Scratch is easier for teenagers to understand and pick up. Scratch includes storytelling, animation, game design, and other features that are particularly interesting for kids to learn. It will be much easier for them to move on to higher-level languages like Python or C++ once they are familiar with the basics of a programming language in Scratch.
On August 1, 2018, Scratch 3.0 beta was released, which is another update since Scratch 2.0 was introduced in 2013. Scratch 3.0 will be available on tablets and phones and will add richer image editing, sound editing, Google Translate and more. Additionally, Scratch 3.0 is compatible with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and LEGO EDUCATION WeDo 2.0. On January 3, 2019, Scratch 3.0 was officially released.
But Scratch is different. As the creator of Scratch, Mitchell Resnick and his team see Scratch not just as a programming language, but as an online learning community. Focusing on projects rather than problem solving, Scratch encourages children to create their own interactive stories, games and animations, starting with ideas, turning those ideas into projects, and then sharing them with others.
Scratch is for children aged eight to 16, ScratchJr is for younger children aged five to seven. Compared to Scratch, ScratchJr is tablet based, with programming blocks that are bigger, a library of more images and more straightforward to splice. ScratchJr’s interface is sketched below.
The world of the future is full of new things. The vast majority of children today will have to be creative and creative in their future jobs. No matter what their age, learning Scratch not only helps them develop computational thinking and creativity, but also allows them to share and communicate with peers, teachers and parents. Scratch is a “creative playground” for children heading into the future.