The UOC shares its Scratch Social Project training materials in open access format to make programming more accessible to children

The training initiative was aimed at professionals and volunteers in third sector institutions and organizations, and schools working with the most vulnerable children and young people with social difficulties.

These resources, which are now available in open access format, provide an introductory guide to including Scratch in the educational curriculum, and designing and organizing educational activities for boys and girls, exploring all the educational possibilities that the tool offers. For example, Scratch can be applied to practise mathematical operations and to improve spelling. Specific materials for working with Arduino and App Inventor are also included. These enable Scratch to be connected with the physical world and interactivity with various devices.

The materials can be freely downloaded via these links:

Introduction to Scratch: practical applications in socio-educational environments (available in Spanish): Scratch Day: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/146511 (Wiki scratch)

Safety online (material available in Catalan and Spanish): CAT: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/139426 - CAST: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/145186

Visual programming of robots and gadgets - Scratch 4 Arduino (available in Spanish only):http://hdl.handle.net/10609/145188

This initiative is part of the UOC's commitment to open knowledge and the promotion of the use of open learning resources. All the materials are published under a Creative Commons licence, so that individuals or institutions who wish to can use them in different projects and initiatives based on programming in Scratch with children.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a programming language invented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aimed at children and young people over nine years old, which enables them to work on computational thinking. By introducing programming at very early ages, they can work on emotional aspects such as self-esteem and motivation, skills such as creativity and teamwork, and cognitive skills such as logic and problem-solving. It also contributes to fostering STEM vocations among girls, and reducing gender bias in the technological professions.