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The Teacher’s Guide to Scratch Book Series
Published by Routledge in 2024, our series is designed to help primary and secondary teachers learn to unlock MIT’s Scratch coding platform for educational success. The three books in the series help take an educator from zero coding knowledge to mastery in the course of 12 projects and countless principles, techniques and theories.
Book 1 – Beginner
220 Pages 111 Color Illustrations
The first book in the series starts assuming zero knowledge or experience with coding or coding education, a perfect starting ground for teachers new to the subject. If you’re unsure, uncomfortable or even wary of having to teach coding, this book will ease you into the subject one small step at a time. It will help you understand not only the principles of coding, but the practical application, as well as many of the reasons for coding education. This book thoroughly explains all the components of the Scratch website and editor including coding, digital art, sharing, and introductory pedagogical practices. The four major projects in the book are appropriate for grades 3 to 6 (Ages 8-11). Includes a glossary and chapter of troubleshooting which will be a handy reference for years to come.
Foreword by Amon Miller, Co-creator of Scratch and Associate Professor of Computing and Innovation and Director of the Extending Access to STEM Empowerment (EASE) Lab at the Olin College of Engineering
Book 2 – Intermediate
222 Pages 170 Color Illustrations
The second book in the series is written for the rich broad ground of mid-level skills in Scratch coding. The projects in this book are best suited to the grade 5 to 8 (ages 11 to 14) range. It builds on the basic skills of the first book, assuming a base level of comfort and familiarity with the Scratch editor and basic coding and digital art skills. This allows the book to delve deeper into using coding to explore ideas, including use of the Pen extension. Games, narratives, are and even geometry are explored through project-based learning. More principles, theory and terminology of coding and computer science are explained with practical applications. Teachers that complete this book will have the skills and knowledge necessary to confidently lead primary and middle school classes to learn code, and to use coding to explore and understand the world.
Foreword by Karen Brennan, founding Scratch team member at MIT, Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Founder of ScratchEd an online resource for Scratch Teachers backed by Harvard.
Book 3 – Advanced
258 Pages 216 Color Illustrations
The third book in the series pushes things to the limit of Scratch’s abilities. The projects in this book are aimed at the grade 8 to 11 (ages 13 to 16) range. The projects build on all the skills and knowledge developed by the first two books and push it towards deeper thinking and student understanding of both computer science theory as well as professional practices. Data management and visualization, open world narratives, and action games are used to give practical examples of serious principles and methods in programming. Teachers that complete this book will have a thorough understanding inside and out of Scratch and coding education, confident and able to take their classroom wherever they need to go and set them up to move on to text coding.
Foreword by Shawn Patrick Higgins, President of the Oregon Computer Science Teachers Association, PBS Digital Innovator All-Star Teachers from 2018-2020 and 6th-12th-grade Game-Making and Coding Teacher in Portland
A Fistful of Pie
72 cards + 1 instruction sheet card game
A Fistful of Pie is an educational card game designed for fun. Born out of a need for a game to celebrate Pi Day (March 14th) with, this game uses pie as a theme to explore the concept of fractions. The game comes with 5 different rule sets allowing the custom deck of fraction-based cards to be used to play five different games straight out of the box. By providing different ways to play the game is built to accommodate different players, all while seamlessly integrating fractions learning into play. Players interact with the fraction based cards learning to count multiple fraction types create a drive for knowledge and comfort to self-motivate learners. The cards can also be used as flash cards to practice fractions, percentage equivalents and simplified fractions.
A Fistful of Pie is available only in bulk purchases. Please contact as at (info) at this URL to inquire about purchases.