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The Building Blocks of Creativity: Coding in Early Childhood with ScratchJr

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Pennsylvania Convention Center, 115C

Explore and create: Exploratory Creation lab
Preregistration Required
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Presenters

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Jessica Blake-West
ScratchJr Learning Experience Designer
DevTech Research Group
Jessica Blake-West works with the DevTech Research Group as the ScratchJr Learning Experience Designer at Boston College. She received her Master’s degree in Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University in 2022, and her Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University in 2020. Her work with DevTech primarily focuses on the creation of ScratchJr resources and supporting technologies, app design, curriculum development, coordinating research studies, and community outreach.
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Chris Garrity
Product Manager
Scratch Foundation
@cagarrity
@scratchteam
As a developer and product manager with the Scratch Foundation (and formerly the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab), Chris Garrity has many years of experience designing playful activities and hands-on workshops to introduce creative coding to children and educators with Scratch and ScratchJr. She is passionate about lowering the barriers to learning to code through providing developmentally appropriate tools in the learners own language, and by making the tools more inclusive and accessible.

Session description

Explore how to use creative coding in early childhood classrooms and the research to support it! You will be introduced to the ScratchJr app and developmentally appropriate curricula to facilitate activities for young learners. Leave the session with your own customized ScratchJr project and educator resources for your next steps.

Purpose & objective

The purpose of this session is to show how coding can be creative and age appropriate for our youngest learners, and why it is important for them to start early.

Participants will:
- Understand the value of bringing creative coding tools into early childhood settings
- Understand coding as an expressive language and communication tool
- Gain an understanding of the many ways in which young learners can engage with ScratchJr

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Outline

◆ Introduction & Session Objectives (15 min)
a. Why is Coding important in early childhood education
b. ScratchJr: supporting literacy (not just coding) and how it’s designed for this age group
c. (Discussion): Encourage participants to take a moment to share their thoughts, challenges and successes with another participant.
◆ Create-Along (25 min)
a. Using an activity from the Coding as Another Language (CAL) curriculum, we’ll lead participants through the process of creating their own personally meaningful ScratchJr project on their own device
b. Share: Participants share their projects with other participants
◆ Reflection (15 min)
a. Successes, challenges, next steps (discussion and sharing)
◆ Q&A (5 min)
a. CAL curriculum and other resources (connect.scratchjr.org)

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Supporting research

Book: Bers, M.U. (2022) Beyond Coding: How Children Learn Human Values through Programming. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Book: Bers, M. (2020). Coding as a Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom, Second Edition. New York, NY: Routledge Press.

Paper: Bers, M. U. & Sullivan, A. (2019). Computer science education in early childhood: The case of ScratchJr. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 18, 113-138. (https://sites.bc.edu/devtech/files/2019/10/COMPUTER-SCIENCE-EDUCATION-IN-EARLY-CHILDHOOD-THE-CASE-OF-SCRATCHJR.pdf)

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Session specifications

Topic:
Creativity & curation tools
Grade level:
PK-2
Skill level:
Beginner
Audience:
Curriculum/district specialists, Teachers
Attendee devices:
Devices required
Attendee device specification:
Smartphone: iOS, Android
Laptop: Chromebook, Mac, PC
Tablet: Android, iOS
Participant accounts, software and other materials:
Participants are encouraged to download the free ScratchJr app to participate fully and be able to create their own ScratchJr project. The ScratchJr website (https://scratchjr.org) has links to download the app from the app store for your device. Additional help can be found on the FAQ page (https://scratchjr.org/about/faq)

To run ScratchJr on Macs, you will need a Mac that has an Apple M1 or newer chip and can run iOS apps.
To run ScratchJr on a PC, you will need to be running Windows 11, and have installed the Amazon app store to install apps.

Subject area:
Computer science, Language arts
ISTE Standards:
For Educators:
Facilitator
  • Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.
For Students:
Creative Communicator
  • Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
Disclosure:
The submitter of this session has been supported by a company whose product is being included in the session

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