Applying Scratch Programming to Facilitate Teaching in k-12 Classrooms

Hi, everyone! This week I would like to introduce a detailed example about apply Scratch Programming to Facilitate Teaching in k-12 Classrooms(see file:///Users/zoezhang/Downloads/applying-scratch-programming-to-facilitate-teaching-in-k-12-classrooms.pdf here). It is a very long-page paper and I just summarized the whole article into a smaller one.

Introduction

In this pilot project, we worked closely with a group of middle school and high school teachers with the aim of verifying the effectiveness of applying Scratch programming in K-12 classrooms. This project consists of three phases. In Phase 1, we visited middle schools and high schools, helped the participating teachers to set up Scratch, and provided initial training of Scratch. Phase 2 of this project was entirely online, through which the participating teachers learned Scratch programming systematically. In Phase 3, middle school and high school teachers applied Scratch programming in their classes, and university students offered on-site and online support. Overall, such a “hybrid format” (that is, face-to-face plus online) is tailored for K-12 teachers without prior programming experience. After completing Phase 2, each teacher was expected to develop at least one Scratch project in his/her class. To date, nineteen middle school and high school teachers have applied Scratch programming in their classes, with subject areas spanning Math, Science, English, and Music. Each teacher assessed the performance of his/her students before and after applying Scratch programming.

Application of Scratch as a pedagogical tool 

Scratch was designed for youth from the ages of 8 to 16 but is used by people of all ages. With the visual nature of Scratch, it can parallel coding in a traditional programming language in a way that is generally more engaging to younger users and people without programming experience. Scratch possesses many of the features that are characteristic of more standard programming languages. It is possible to teach the most basic of computer science concepts— simple sequential instructions—up to Boolean logic, iteration, and even recursion by using Scratch.

However if Scratch were only a useful pedagogical tool for introducing older students to the concepts of computer programming, its utility would be limited. Scratch is not limited in its usefulness as a tool that can be used only for this purpose. Students are learning with Scratch at all levels (from elementary school to college) and across disciplines.

The subject most closely related to computer science is math. Computer science is the application of mathematics in the same way that chemical engineering is the application of chemistry. This means that using Scratch as a pedagogical tool for exposing mathematical concepts comes more naturally than using Scratch for a language arts class, for example. Students can be taught geometry by having them make code in Scratch that will produce desired transformations and rotations on shapes. Scratch possesses code blocks that perform all the functions found on a scientific calculator. After learning the quadratic equation, students could write a program in Scratch that will use the quadratic equation to calculate the roots of any quadratic polynomial. Using scratch’s pin function, code can be written to show the graphs of a function being drawn as its independent variable increases. Most mathematical principles can be expressed in some way with computer languages. With Scratch’s visible output, it becomes easy to adapt many mathematical principles to a project in Scratch.

A total of twenty-six middle school and high school teachers from four counties were selected in this pilot project to apply Scratch programming in K-12 classrooms. They teach diverse subject areas including English, Science, Math, and Music. None of the participating teachers has any prior programming experience. This pilot project consists of three phases, as elaborated below separately.

During Phase 1, we visited middle schools and high schools. Our university students helped the participating teachers to set up Scratch over their computers and provided the initial training of Scratch. Particularly through interacting with the teachers, personal relationships were established between us and the teachers, which greatly facilitated the next two phases of this project. 

Phase 2 was conducted entirely online. Specifically, the participating teachers learned Scratch programming through our online course named “Introduction to Scratch.” The online course consists of four units. Each unit further consists of four video tutorials. In each video tutorial, PowerPoint slides, programming demonstrations, and exercises together with solutions are offered to the teachers. The online course was delivered using Google Course Builder, which is free software.

Results

The impact of the project on teachers and students is determined through a series of surveys and interviews. After attending our Scratch training, teachers were expected to develop at least one Scratch projects in their own discipline area for his/her classroom. We also have collected pre and post raw scores from student assessments before and after administering a scratch project. Overall, the results indicate that the project succeeded in instructing the basic concepts of Scratch programming to the participating teachers and increasing their confidence in incorporating Scratch based learning into their own subject areas. Results of the interviews and student performance along with some projects created by the teachers are presented in this section.

Sample Scratch project developed for Science class

The Balancing Equations Project allows the user to test their knowledge of balancing equations with a fun and interactive game to save the school by choosing the correct answers to these chemistry problems. There are two levels with increasing difficulty to master the subject.

Sample Scratch project developed for Math class

The Math Graphing Project allows the user to learn about reflection, rotation, and transcribing points using a square with four points on the corners. Pressing the buttons shows how each point is moved around the graph. 

Sample Scratch project developed for English class

The Vocab Project is a program that allows the user to take a vocab quiz to test their knowledge of words taught in class. The program will tell the user if they got the answer right or not and explain what words they need to review the definitions.

Sample Scratch project developed for Music class

The Music Intro Project is a fun and simple program to introduce the rules and expectations of a music/digital arts class. It uses animations and music to explain the syllabus and some of the guidelines for the class.

After developing their own projects on a certain topic, the teachers first introduced the topic in his/her classroom and assessed the students by providing a test or quiz. After that, the teacher introduced the student to his/her developed program and revisited the same topic. In some classrooms, the students also developed their Scratch programs. Finally, the teacher provided the same test or quiz to collect the post score. By comparing the pretest and posttest scores, the teacher identified if there is any improvement in student achievement as a result of the Scratch programming based learning.

Conclusions

A pilot project is reported in this paper, in which we worked closely with a group of middle school and high school teachers with the aim of verifying the effectiveness of applying Scratch programming in K-12 classroom. This project employs a “hybrid format,” including both face-to-face and online, which is tailored for K-12 teachers without prior programming experience. To date, nineteen middle school and high school teachers have applied Scratch programming in their classes, with subject areas spanning Math, Science, English, and Music. All the teachers univocally observed significant improvement of students’ scores after Scratch programming was applied. Most of the participating teachers commented that they are excited by applying Scratch in their teaching and they would recommend our training on Scratch programming to other teachers. As this project is still ongoing and we are anticipating data from more teachers, we will present the outcomes comprehensively at the conference. 

According to our survey, all participating teachers are very excited about this project and about 89% of the participating teachers would recommend our training on Scratch programming to other teachers. We already have contacted the superintendents of three school districts in West Virginia. Looking at our initial data they can see the prospect of our Scratch programming based learning and they all agreed to allow us to work with their teachers. In our 2017 effort we decided to recruit at least two teachers from the same discipline at same school. We are hoping that will allow the teachers to support each other during the school year. We also decided to set up an online forum so all teachers can post their experiences to learn from each other.

References

1. www.scratch.mit.edu 

2. www.webs.wichita.edu/?u=seeds&p=/main/aboutseeds/ 

3. www.ywic.nmsu.edu/curriculum-2/scratch/ 

4. www.utdallas.edu/k12/desc/

5.file:///Users/zoezhang/Downloads/applying-scratch-programming-to-facilitate-teaching-in-k-12-classrooms.pdf