It comes out of MIT, and is usually used on their server, using a web interface.

That web interface is closing at 7 AM on January 2nd. Later that afternoon, it will be back up, but with Scratch 3.0!

Here’s a video.

I’m especially excited about the physical interface tools. Some of that was already in place in a separate parallel project that was more experimental. It is nice to see Scratch itself advancing.

The Scratch programming language is a project set at MIT. Scratch programming involves moving images, called blocks, from a pallet into a work area, hooking them together and maybe changing some values attached to them, in order to develop programs that mainly, but not exclusively, manipulate sprites. (See example of code blokcks above.) The project is located HERE. This is a full object oriented programming language with quite a few features that make it very powerful, for a kid’s toy.

When you use Scratch, normally, you are interacting with the server at MIT via a web page. This allows you to use Scratch on any device regardless of operating system or power, as long as you have an internet connection. It also means the development environment is always up to date. And, on this site, you can interact with all the other scratch coders in the world, and borrow each other’s code, etc.

There is also a version of Scratch that can be run in stand-alone mode on a computer.

And now, there is a version of this stand alone program that is designed to run on a Raspberry Pi.

This version of Scratch has coding elements that control the General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins on the Pi. This means you can use the Scratch programming language to interface not merely with sprites on a screen, but with anything physical in the real world, and in so doing, TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! BWA HAHAHAHA!!

You probably think I’m kidding but I’m not. It is well known that ten thousand chimpanzees randomly banging on keyboards will recreate all the works of Shakespeare. But it will take so long that the Universe will have ended by then. But if you give a few million kids the ability to write programs that interact with the real world it won’t take nearly that much time for them to change the world itself, considerably. Who can even imagine how? But I digress.

Anyway, we have a very easily learned and potentially very powerful software development environment married to a machine that has essentially unlimited abilities to interact with the physical world via GPIO pins, which ultimately can control any kind of switch, motor, sensor, other computer, or anything, that is electronic or that knows something that is electronic.

None of this is sudden. Scratch has been around a long time, and comes from a heritage of software development that goes back to the very beginning of modern languages. The ability to control GPIO like pins is exactly what controllers of all sorts have been doing for years. There has been a stand along version of scratch from early on in the MIT project, presumably with some version predating the on line version. The ability to interact with Raspberry Pi GPIO pins has always been there because you can write special code for Scratch and the actual ability (instead of the merely pedantically potential ability) has been around for maybe a year or so. But over recent months the stand along scratch that you would install on a Raspberry Pi and that has a fairly rich feature set has come to life. Bwa hahahaha!

One way to access this significant power is to buy into the Kano system. You can get a Kano Computer Kit for just under $150. It allows you to build a sort of laptop, including a keyboard and some other stuff (but you supply the screen). The box that holds the Pi, on which Kano is built, has some fancy LED lights that can be manipulated with Scratch. It also comes with a Makey-Makey like sensor that allows some additional interacton. But I’m afraid that’s about it.

I can’t recommend the Kano computer for most users. The markup on the LED lights and the ground fault serial interface device feels like 1000%, though I’m sure it is very nicely packaged and all that. If you go farther, and get the more elaborate Kano Computer Kit Complete , for just under $250, you get some additional LED lights and some sort of microphone. Kano also has a Motion Sensor kit for $23 bucks sold separately, which I think comes with the afore mentioned kits, and there are other things you can get.

In short, Kano looks great, seems nice, may be a really cook kid friendly set of technology, but I’m afraid there will be a close correlation between families that benefit from Kano and families that benefit from the Republican-Trump tax bill.

A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboard costs about $35. Put that together with stuff you have laying around, like your TV or an extra monitor, a keyboard and mouse, etc. Maybe get some sort of breakout kit such as the Smraza T Type GPIO Breakout board for Raspberry Pi 3 2 Mode B/B+ with 830 tie-points Breadboard and 40 Pin Rainbow Cable. This allows you to more easily attach things to the Pi. The Pi-3 already has internet and Bluetooth capabilities.

The most current version of the Rapsperry Pi operating system, a form of Linux called Raspbian (for Rasperry and Debian, a classic form of Linux) has the offline Scratch language built in. Go to this site to learn more about that. Then you can have code blocks like this:

Depending on that GIPO pin number 2 is hooked to, you can now TAKE OVER THE WORLD … BWA HAHAHAHAHA!!!

But seriously, this is very cool, and very powerful.

I predict that in the not too distant future, the Internet of Things will be operated with, essentially, the Scratch programming language. It is accessible to regular people, allowing them to modify their home automation, and allows companies that install this sort of thing to have much more powerful technicians with less effort on training. Think of Scratch on controller software to be a bit like the old Microsoft Windows macros — remember that? — back when that technology was usable, and in fact used, by people who knew virtually nothing about the computers they were using.

What could possibly go wrong?

Coding Projects in Scratch: A step by step guide by DK Publishers is a new scratch coding book. I got a copy a couple of days ago and have been going through it, and found it to be excellent. I’ll be including it in my Science Oriented Holiday Shopping Guide for Kids Stuff, which I’ll have out soon, but I wanted to give you a heads up first. From the publishers:

Using fun graphics and easy-to-follow instructions, Coding Projects in Scratch is a straightforward, visual guide that shows young learners how to build their own computer projects using Scratch, a popular free programming language.

Kids can animate their favorite characters, build games to play with friends, create silly sound effects, and more with Coding Projects in Scratch. All they need is a desktop or laptop with Adobe 10.2 or later, and an internet connection to download Scratch 2.0. Coding can be done without download on https://scratch.mit.edu.

Step-by-step instructions teach essential coding basics and outline 18 fun and exciting projects, including a personalized birthday card; a “tunnel of doom” multiplayer game; a dinosaur dance party animation with flashing lights, music, and dance moves—and much more.

The simple, logical steps in Coding Projects in Scratch are fully illustrated with fun pixel art and build on the basics of coding, so that kids can have the skills to make whatever kind of project they can dream up.

Also to be featured in the Holiday Shopping guide, this very interesting technology book mainly for young folk. At first I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, but then, once I started going through it, I couldn’t put it down.

Super Cool Tech is like a coffee table book for nerds. It is designed to look like a laptop (see the picture at the top of the post) and that is how you open it and use it.

See today’s best innovations and imagine tomorrow’s big ideas in Super Cool Tech. This cutting-edge guide explores how incredible new technologies are shaping the modern world and its future, from familiar smartwatches to intelligent, driverless cars.

Packed with more than 250 full-color images, X-rays, thermal imaging, digital artworks, cross-sections, and cutaways, Super Cool Tech reveals the secrets behind the latest gadgets and gizmos, state-of-the-art buildings, and life-changing technologies.

Lift the unique laptop-inspired book cover to see incredible architectural concepts around the world, such as the Hydropolis Underwater Hotel and Resort in Dubai, and the River Gym, a human-powered floating gym in New York City. Discover how a wheelchair adapts to its surroundings and learn how a cutting board can give the nutritional information of the food being prepared on it.

From 3-D-printed cars to robot vacuum cleaners, Super Cool Tech reveals today’s amazing inventions and looks ahead to the future of technology, including hologram traffic lights and the Galactic Suite Hotel in space. Perfect for STEAM education initiatives, Super Cool Tech makes technology easy to understand, following the history of each invention and how they impact our everyday lives, and “How It Works” panels explain the design and function of each item using clear explanations and images.

Designed in DK’s signature style, Super Cool Tech is the ultimate guide to exploring and understanding the latest gadgets and inventions while looking ahead to the future of technology.

Geology book for kids

The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic: The Adventures of Geo, Vol. 1 is a good stab at making a comic that teaches some science.

We follow the adventures of Geo and his robotic dog, Rocky as the visit the ancient supercontinent of Pangea. This journey is pursuant to Geo’s upcoming test in his geology class.

What is the center of the Earth made out of? How do volcanoes work? Why do earthquakes happen? How did scientists figure out plate tectonics?

The book is geared for kids starting whenever they can read, or a bit older. Great drawings, great science, great story.

Physiology and the Human Body for Kids

The The Manga Guide to Physiology is one of several Manga Guides that use a cartoon approach to, in this case, physiology. It isn’t all magna, but includes sections of regular text that give the reader a breather from the whacky world of anime where all the characters breath through their eyes. I like that aspect of the book because it serves a wider range of readers.

Once again, a central theme of the story is a kid cramming for a test. Seems to be a popular theme.

Survive! Inside the Human Body, Vol. 1: The Digestive System is the first in a series of anime like, but not exactly, volumes that combine a comic theme and inserts in normal rhetorical form. The Survive books are pretty detailed, and targeted for kids 8 and above.

Survive! Inside the Human Body, Volume 1 begins an epic journey through the human body with a look at the digestive system. This lively, full-color science comic explores Phoebe’s insides after she accidentally swallows a microscopic ship. The only problem? Dr. Brain (the ship’s eccentric inventor) and Phoebe’s friend Geo are on board!

Volume 2 is on The Circulatory System, and Volume 3 is on The Nervous System.

Kid of like The Incredible Journey meets the Magic School Bus meets Pokemon.

Programming Books for Kids

JavaScript for Kids is a lighthearted introduction that teaches programming essentials through patient, step-by-step examples paired with funny illustrations. You’ll begin with the basics, like working with strings, arrays, and loops, and then move on to more advanced topics, like building interactivity with jQuery and drawing graphics with Canvas.

Along the way, you’ll write games such as Find the Buried Treasure, Hangman, and Snake.

The Super Scratch Programming Adventure! (Covers Version 2): Learn to Program by Making Cool Games is now out in a second edition, covering Scratch version 2. Scratch is part of a family of very kid friendly programming languages. The book suggests it is for ages 8 and above, but in various incarnations, Scratch can work for much younger kids. This is a good start on programming for robots. The book guides the reader through development of various games, and provides guidance in getting the Scratch environment running on your computer. This is a very visual, object oriented programming language, and the book is too.

A good companion book, focusing on Scratch Junior (a version of Scratch) is The Official ScratchJr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code.

The Official ScratchJr Book is the perfect companion to this free app and makes coding easy and fun for all. Kids learn to program by connecting blocks of code to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing.

Each chapter includes several activities that build on one another, culminating in a fun final project. These hands-on activities help kids develop computational-thinking, problem-solving, and design skills.

The Official ScratchJr Book is actually geared towards somewhat younger kids.