Five Things for You to Get Started with Scratch 3.0

Scratch Getting Over It: Exploring Scratch 3.0 and Its Impact on STEAM

EducationScratch 3.0 is the latest generation of one of the most popular programming languages for kids. With Scratch, young learners can easily get into coding through a visual, block-based environment, making programming accessible and fun. The newest version, Scratch 3.0, brings exciting features to the platform, including new sprites, a completely redesigned sound editor, and dozens of new programming blocks. This opens up endless possibilities for creative coding projects.
Not only does Scratch 3.0 offer a broad set of tools for creating interactive animations, stories, and games, but it is also available in more than 40 languages, making it a global tool for learning programming. It supports a wide range of hardware, allowing students to create, share, and remix projects across various platforms. Whether on a desktop, tablet, or external device, Scratch 3.0 is ready to power up creativity.
A significant development related to Scratch 3.0 is mBlock 5, which uses Scratch 3.0 as a foundation. This platform builds on Scratch’s block-based programming to offer both visual-based and text-based programming software, designed specifically for STEAM education. mBlock 5 enhances the learning experience by combining creativity with technology, empowering kids to dive into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) with engaging tools.
With Scratch 3.0 and its integration into platforms like mBlock 5, students can get over the initial challenges of coding and embrace the future of STEAM education through intuitive and interactive learning experiences.

Blocks

Users can easily get started by dragging and dropping blocks and writing programs for Makeblock robots, Arduino boards, and others. mBlock 5 makes learning coding fun and easy with its new Scratch 3.0 features. Users can easily write and upload programs to devices to learn programming by blending physical and digital interactions. The updated version has new sound-effect blocks and pen blocks that include support for transparency. New glide blocks make it easier to move to a sprite. And then there are the dozens of new extensions….

Sound

The sound editor has been redesigned, so that it is even easier to record with. Many new sound effects are introduced, such as “faster, slower, echo, and robot.” The result is that kids can be even more creative and do more with mBlock 5. For kids who know nothing about coding, mBlock 5 is designed to make learning to code easier and includes a “tutorial” button. Many new bite-sized how-to videos can provide kids the extra help they need anytime.

New paint and sound editors make it easier to re-mix and manipulate characters, music, and sounds. Kids will be able to manipulate the programming language to play instruments and drums with the music feature and detect motion with the video-sensing feature of the camera.

The many new extensions and features allow users to add collections of extra blocks. For example, some of the new extensions let kids program Makeblock’s physical devices as well as translate text.

The major change in the updated Scratch 3.0 is the hardware sprite between hardware and robot, and the new mBlock comes with this wonderful “communications variable.” It is the easiest way for kids to learn a programming language and AI. In addition, kids can add Internet of Things functionality to Makeblock’s newest device, Codey Rocky.

Get your kids started in programming with this fun new program that combines gaming with coding.