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Stage 01 of 04 · Explorer

Code Quest: Scratch

Programming, by snapping blocks together.

Coding

Ages
8 – 11
Duration
8 weeks
Prereq
None

What students learn

Programming concepts (sequence, loop, conditional, variable, event) by snapping blocks together to build games and stories in Scratch. The goal isn’t syntax — it’s thinking in code.

By the end students can read a Scratch project and predict what it does, then change one thing and see what happens. They’ve published a real game to the Scratch community that family and friends can actually play.

Module-by-module

  1. Welcome to Scratch

    Sprites, stage, blocks. Sprite moves with arrow keys.

  2. Loops & timing

    Forever, repeat, wait. A sprite that paces back and forth.

  3. Conditionals

    If-then, if-then-else. Catch-the-apple mini-game.

  4. Variables & score

    Score, lives, timer. A mini-game with a scoreboard.

  5. Stories & sound

    Costumes, sound, broadcast. An animated 3-scene story.

  6. Remix culture

    Fork a project, improve it. Personal twist on a remix.

  7. Game project, part 1

    Design + sprites. Playable rough cut.

  8. Game project, part 2

    Polish + share. Published game on scratch.mit.edu.

What they make

A published Scratch game that family and friends can actually play.

Walk away with

Sequence / loop / conditional / variable as durable mental models. Comfort reading other people’s code via Scratch remix culture. A real internet artifact they made.

Free resources we recommend

  1. Scratch

    The platform itself and its official tutorials.

    MIT lineage; ~200M users; the de-facto standard.

    Interactive editor + community + tutorials

  2. Code.org — CS Fundamentals

    Standards-aligned K-5 sequence, ~30 hours, no ads.

    Code.org is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and donors.

    Self-paced interactive puzzles + unplugged

  3. Experience CS

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s successor to Google’s CS First. Grades 3–8.

    Raspberry Pi Foundation (UK charity); Google handed off CS First when it sunset 2025-06-30.

    Scratch units + videos + starter projects

Honorable mentions

Next step

C3 First Python for text-based programming — or stay in Scratch and remix for fun.

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