We are thrilled that 5th Class pupil, Leo, came first place in his age categoy at the The National Scratch Competition held in Limerick yesterday.
The competition is open to students in primary and second level schools in Ireland, and to students attending after-school coding clubs such as Coderdojo. Projects can be about anything, the only limit is the student’s imagination.
Leo submitted his entry as part of Mrs Cooney’s lunchtime Scratch Club, which she set up earlier this year as a lunchtime activity for pupils in 5th class. Ms Cooney and all the Scratch Club pupils were so excited when we learned he had reached the final. Leo went to Limerick with his dad yesterday for the National Finals and had no expectation that he would walk away with the trophy for First Place in the 5th & 6th Class age category.
Prior to this year, Leo had attended workshops at St Francis NS run by Joan McCann of The Code Lab which piqued his interest in coding.
Scratch is a visual programming language that makes it easy for young people to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music and art – and share their creations on the web.
- Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively – essential skills for life in the 21st century.
- Scratch teaches computational thinking and problem-solving using a powerful yet simple-to-use building block approach to app creation.
- Scratch is a fun and interesting way to introduce software development to students. Using Scratch, students gain a better understanding of a career in IT and can make more informed CAO choices.
