Creative Scratch Projects for Students - International Scratch Olympiad

Scratch by MIT is the perfect starting point of beginners and students alike to begin their programming journey. Not only is it easy to understand but just as fun as any other complex programming languages.

Young children and students who want to get into coding may find coding languages like Python too complex to understand as beginners hence having a user friendly and accessible method of learning is important. And that is Scratch.

Here is a list of fun and creative Scratch projects to start off students on their coding journey!

Interactive Storytelling

Scratch allows users to create various scenes using its backdrop and sprites features which essentially allows people to create their own backgrounds, characters, and objects as well.

For students who don’t like games or prefer storytelling more, this feature is the way to go. They can recreate their favourite stories or even reenact well-known popular tales or make their own ones. There is no one dimensional story written out only in words but it’s interactive, fun, and helps students get the hang of Scratch.

Educational mini-games

Using Scratch and its various building blocks, games can incorporate educational aspects in them as well. For example:

Maths: Simple point-based games which require players to choose the correct answer to a sum of classic maths games like 2048.
Hangman: A classic game which can be remade with simple code. It is not only fun and easy to create in Scratch but children can learn words and spellings as well.
Tiles: A classic game where users have to match pictures to their corresponding counterparts.

Animated science concepts

Games are not the only way educational content can be incorporated into coding. Scratch allows its users to create animations as well. Students can use this feature to create 3D animations of scientific concepts or create slideshows explaining them.

Students can use Scratch’s sprite library or even draw their own diagrams or scenes using the Paint editor feature and upload images as well. Here’s a simple formula to follow to create fun animated science projects:

Pick a concept: For example, the water cycle, solar system, food chain, global warming, etc.
Break it into steps: You can animate each step as a different scene with different sprites and new elements.
Choose sprites and backgrounds: You can use the Scratch library for sprites or draw your own.
Use blocks: Motion, Looks, Events, Control, and Sound blocks can be used to animate the processes.
Add explanations: Make use of text bubbles, labels of recorded narrations to add another layer of interaction to your project.

Adding buttons that trigger new events or take you to the next step will make the project more engaging and interactive. Students can choose their own topics and create their projects accordingly.

Quizzes and puzzles

Quizzing games are one of the easiest projects to start off with in Scratch. Not only are they customisable and easy to experiment with but they’re also easy to create in Scratch.

A few quizzes and puzzles that students can make in Scratch are:

Multiple choice quizzes: A very classic format of a question or sum and options that users can choose for. By adding points for correct answers, you can even make a leaderboard for your game.
Timed quizzes: Just another way to make your quiz a little bit more interactive and fun. Adding a timer feature and allowing users to set their own time limits can make your quiz games more fun and interesting.
Jigsaw Puzzles: Students can upload a picture, break it into pieces and code each piece as a sprite so that when they’re dragged into the right place, they snap back into place.
Mazes: Using simple sprites and the use of arrow keys, students can create mazes where the player has to guide a sprite through a series of mazes.

Fun with music

Scratch isn’t just for animations and games. Students can create instruments, compose songs, and even make games that respond to sound. Here are some creative project ideas:

Virtual Instruments: You can create pretty accurate real life instruments in Scratch by using the play note block by making each key or button play a different note.
Karaoke Game: A project where lyrics are displayed on screen while a backtrack plays in the background is easy to code yet extremely fun. It is interactive and easy and students combine music and text to experiment.
Sound effects: Students can create story sequences with music or sound effects in the background.

Stories feel much more interesting when there’s sound in the mix and students can create mini movies with voiceovers as well.

Conclusion

The most important thing to keep in mind with Scratch is that experimenting and being creative is the best way to learn programming. These exercises listed in the blog are fun starters for students but they should always be encouraged to create their own and learn on their own.