Paper ID #18766

Applying Scratch Programming to Facilitate Teaching in k-12 Classrooms

Dr. Afrin Naz, West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Dr. Afrin Naz is an assistant professor at the Computer Science and Information Systems department at
West Virginia University Institute of Technology. She is working with high school teachers to inspire the
K-12 students to the STEM fields. In last four years Dr. Naz and her team launched six workshops for
high school teachers. Currently her team is training the high school teachers to offer online materials to
supplement their face-to-face classroom.
Dr. Mingyu Lu, West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Mingyu Lu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Bei-
jing, China, in 1995 and 1997 respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. From 1997 to 2002, he was a research assistant at the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
From 2002 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Electromagnetics Laboratory in the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was an assistant professor with the Department of Elec-
trical Engineering, the University of Texas at Arlington from 2005 to 2012. He joined the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, West Virginia University Institute of Technology in 2012, and
he is currently an associate professor. His current research interests include wireless power transmission,
radar systems, microwave remote sensing, antenna design, and computational electromagnetics. He was
the recipient of the first prize award in the student paper competition of the IEEE International Antennas
and Propagation Symposium, Boston, MA in 2001. He served as the chair of Antennas and Propagation
Society of IEEE Fort Worth Chapter from 2006 to 2011.
Mr. Cody Ryan Zackoski, West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Currently, I am a second-year student enrolled at WVU Institute of Technology, studying for a B.S. in
Computer Science and a B.S. in Information Systems. Before coming to WVU Institute of Techonology,
I graduated suma cum laude from both Midland Trail High School and from Fayette Institute of Tech-
nology in the Aries Computer Maintenance course. I taught a 12-week night class at Fayette Institute of
technology on smartphones and tablets on three separate occasions. After coming to WVU Institute of
Technology, I began working under Dr. Afrin Naz in a work-study arrangement. In this work-study, I am
continuing research with parallel computing, and using the Scratch programming language as a tool for
STEM education in the K-12 fields.

Mr. Caleb R Dingus, West Virginia University Institute of Technology

I am a student at West Virginia University Institute of Technology working towards a bachelor’s degree
in Computer Science. I worked with Middle and High School teachers in developing curriculum and
implementing Computer Science concepts.

American
c Society for Engineering Education, 2017
 Applying Scratch programming to Facilitate Teaching in K-12 classrooms
(Research-to-Practice, Strand: Other)

Introduction

This paper presents a project to apply Scratch programming in K-12 classroom. Scratch is a free
educational programming language developed by Lifelong Kindergarten at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, oriented toward kids with age from 8 to 16 and/or with grade from third
grade to high school1. Since Scratch employs a graphical programming interface rather than
traditional code programming, it is simple and straightforward for kids as young as at the
Kindergarten stage. Meanwhile, Scratch is highly versatile: if used effectively, it can facilitate
teaching abstract concepts in any subject.

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 classroom.
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. All the teachers univocally reported significant
improvement of students’ scores after Scratch programming was applied. Based upon the data
collected from the nineteen teachers, students’ average scores at least double as a result of
Scratch programming. 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.

Related work

Scratch has been widely adopted across the nation to teach programming to young kids.
Specifically, many universities have developed Scratch-based outreach programs, with a few
examples articulated in the following. Through their SEEDS program for K-12 students, Wichita
State University utilizes Scratch programming to promote STEM to young people2. The Young
Women in Computing (YWiC) program at New Mexico State University integrates Scratch into
its curriculum of middle school summer camps in 20133. University of Texas in Dallas offers
two Scratch camps (for beginner and advanced levels, respectively) in their K-12 outreach
activities4.

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 1. 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.

(a) A recursive Fibonacci Algorithm in Scratch. (b) An interactive animal cell in Scratch

.
Figure 1: Photos of Math and Science Scratch sample projects.

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 (such as math, computer
science, language arts, social studies)1. Just as computers transcend nearly all facets of modern
life, Scratch transcends many of the disciplines. It does this by giving its users the tools to create,
recreate, or simulate virtually anything. Perhaps the best way to understand Scratch’s ability to
be used as a pedagogical tool for multiple different K-12 subjects is through example.

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 pen 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 computers languages. With Scratch’s visible output, it becomes easy
to adapt many mathematical principles to a project in Scratch.

With disciplines like language arts, social studies, or laboratory sciences, it may not be
immediately apparent how Scratch can be utilized. One large part of Scratch is programming
interactive stories, games, and animations1. Coupled with the ability of users to create or use
preexisting pictures in their projects, Scratch projects can contain anything that can be contained
in a digital image file. By allowing users to create and upload their own content, the scope of
Scratch becomes even wider to include the other disciplines. Scenes from classical plays can be
recreated as simple animations in Scratch for a language arts project. Any diagram found in a
text book can be made into a project by recreating the diagram in Scratch and writing a program
to display more information as the user interacts with the points of interest. A map of historical
battles, a political map of the world, a diagram of a human cell, and the syntax tree of an English
sentence can all be made into interactive diagram projects with Scratch. Any concept that can be
explained with an animation or diagram can be made into a project using Scratch. Music and the
arts are just another example of a discipline that can be expressed in Scratch. It is possible to
transpose any sheet music into Scratch. Visual arts, and graphic design are a large part of
creating custom content to use in a project with Scratch. There are undoubtedly more subjects
that can be supplemented by projects using Scratch.

Scratch is a tool that instructors in any setting can use to supplement the instruction of nearly any
subject. It goes beyond its nature as a programming language by allowing its users to create their
own custom projects based on any subject material. Students using Scratch will always be
learning computer science principles to some degree, as all projects made in Scratch are a form
of computer Program. Because of this, computer science education can be seamlessly integrated
into classrooms everywhere.
Three-phase effort to apply Scratch programming in K-12 classroom

Total twenty six middle school and high school teachers from four counties were selected in this
pilot project to apply Scratch programming in K-12 classroom. 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
them 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.
The photo in Figure 2 was taken when we
visited one of the high schools. Figure 2: A photo taken in Phase 1 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 a free software.
Figure 3 shows a snapshot of one of the
video tutorials.
Figure 3: A snapshot of our online course.

In Phase 3, middle school and high school teachers applied Scratch programming in their classes.
After completing the online course in Phase 2, each teacher was expected to develop at least one
Scratch project in his/her class. Our university
students offered them on-site and online
support. The photo in Figure 4 was taken
when one university student was helping a
teacher with her project. According to
teachers’ feedback, online support is
especially helpful for schools in
geographically-isolated regions.

Figure 4: A photo taken in Phase 3 of this project.

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 of
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.

1. Sample Scratch projects developed by the participating teachers

As mentioned before, after attending our Scratch training, teachers were expected to develop at
least one Scratch projects in their own discipline area to his/her classroom. Our university
students provided onsite and online help to the teachers if needed. 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. In the followings we are describing some
sample Scratch projects created by participating teachers. Some of their efforts are demonstrated
in Figure 5.

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.

(a) Sample Science Project. (b) Sample Math Project.

. engineering session.

(c) Sample English Project. (d) Sample Music Project.

Figure 5: Samples of K-12

engineering teachers’
session . efforts in applying Scratch programming
engineering in their
session . teaching.

. .

.
After developing their own projects in 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 class
rooms 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 score, the teacher
identified if there is any improvement in student achievement as a result of the Scratch
programming based learning.

2. Pre and post assessment scores

As mentioned before, nineteen teachers delivered the engineering projects in their middle or high
school classrooms. The teachers who incorporated the Scratch programming in their classrooms
assessed their students before and after Scratch programming was applied. All of the teachers
noted an improvement in the students’ assessment scores when comparing the pretest to the post
test scores. On average about 45% improvement in student learning score has been reported. This
increase indicates that the increase in student achievement is a result of the Scratch programming
based learning.

3. Teachers comments from interviews

All the participating teachers took surveys before the online course, after the online course, and
after delivering Scratch programming. Survey results indicate that most of them are excited by
applying Scratch in their teaching. Several comments from the teachers are quoted below.
- I had never used computer programming, and so this was the first time I'd ever used
anything to do with computer programming in a science classroom, and I think what I saw
was the students were extremely excited about it. It was a concept that I had not previously
used or maybe they had not previously used but had heard of, and when I said computer—
we're going to use some computer programming, extreme excitement just, “What are we
going to do with it? What—” I just have to say, “You have to just calm down and let me tell
you what we’re going to do with it,” so definitely that’s what I saw affect the student
learning.
- Students are more engaged and interested. They want to problem-solve, and are more
pragmatic in their attack of the problems. They’re very academically competitive…and
they wanted to know more just so they could demonstrate their knowledge and show other
students what they had learned on their own before they came to class.
- I feel like my groups as a whole showed more interest in STEM, and they liked seeing the
application of their knowledge to specific careers. As a whole, I noticed that more
introverted students had a voice, and they were more involved in the project than they had
been in the past.
Also as indicated by the surveys, 89% of the participating teachers would recommend our
training on Scratch programming to other teachers, the remaining 11% were neutral, and none of
the participants selected “do not recommend.”

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.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Google Inc. for providing the financial sponsorship.

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/