What is Scratch? – A Guide for Beginners

A guide to help you understand the basics of what Scratch is and how to get started with sequential block coding.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a block-based visual programming language and online community targeted primarily at children. In computing, a visual programming language is a language that lets users create programmes with visual expressions and symbols rather than text. It’s like making a jigsaw puzzle out of a string of commands. You can programme your own interactive stories, games and animations and then share these with the online community. Scratch also helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systemically and work collaboratively, which are increasingly becoming essential skills for the 21st century.

Who can use Scratch?

Scratch is suitable for mixed ability classes and does not require any prior knowledge of programming. It is designed especially for ages 8 to 16, but can be used by people of all ages. Scratch has been designed so children can learn through exploring, experimenting and tinkering. This allows children to learn independently, freeing up parent or teacher time so they can get on with other tasks or work with another child.

What is MartyBlocks?

MartyBlocks is built on Scratch 3.0. With MartyBlocks, you can control and animate Marty the Robot using a simple drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to intuitively create complex behaviors without writing a single line of traditional code. This makes it an excellent tool for educators, parents, and robotics enthusiasts looking to introduce the principles of coding and robotics in a way that’s engaging and easy to understand. Whether you’re creating basic movements or orchestrating more elaborate routines, MartyBlocks provides a versatile and friendly way to bring Marty to life. If you’re curious about coding, robotics, or just looking for an exciting educational tool, MartyBlocks is a great place to start.

If you’d like to try Marty the Robot, and MartyBlocks for yourself, we offer free, two-week trials with Marty the Robot. We’ll even cover shipping & collection costs and provide virtual training for teachers. It’s a win-win!

The Jargon

Scratch, and MartyBlocks, have their own vocabulary which takes practice to get used to. Below are some common words that you will see when using Scratch:

How to Use the Command Blocks

These are the different instructions you can give to your Sprites. They are broken down into eight varieties of blocks:

Motion Blocks

Motion:

These relate to the ways in which your sprite will move. You can add in different commands that allow you to move your sprites, change angles and positions.

Looks Blocks

Looks:

Commands in this section allow you to control the visuals of the sprite. You can change the costume, backdrop, size of the sprite and more.

Sound Blocks

Sound:

This section will allow you to add sounds to your programme. You can add sound effects and change the volume and pitch.

Events Blocks

Events:

You can use this part to trigger different commands. For instance, an event could be ‘when the backdrop switches to Backdrop 2, change the loudness of the sound to 10’. This means, the background will change and the sound will increase on a certain command.

Control Blocks

Control:

Allows you to add conditionals and loops. A conditional is something that is either true or false, this means the conditional block will only run if the condition is true. A loop allows you to repeat an animation, you can add a motion and sound to a Sprite and then add a loop to ensure this is repeated.

Sensing Blocks

Sensing:

Allows your Sprite to interact with the surroundings. Let’s say you want to make a game where the goal is for two Sprites to never touch, you will need to write a script telling the programme this. Using the loop, can you use the ‘If’ statement to say that if Sprite1 touches Sprite2 then you must ‘Stop all’

Operator Blocks

Operators:

These are used to script math equations and string handling. Basically, it takes one or more values and uses them to produce another value. When you use values to produce other values in programming, it’s called ‘performing an operation’.

Variables

Variables:

These are the blocks used to hold values and strings (like your score or number of lives in a game). Variables allow for more complicated interactions. For instance, if you wanted to create a game where a cat chases a mouse that is moving randomly you would have to add in a series of variables to allow this to happen.

My Blocks

My Blocks:

The primary purpose of these blocks is to make programming easier. They also give you functionality that isn’t built into the other Scratch blocks. For example, you could create a block that would choose at random, saying hello from a number of different languages. It lets you use one block that you’ve coded instead of a whole string of command blocks every time.

Find out more about Marty the Robot, or sign up for a two-week FREE trial here!

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