Page 21 - Learn To Program With Scratch

The examples presented in these pages demonstrate the wide range
of knowledge you can explore using Scratch. These examples were selected
carefully to explain programming concepts and to show how you can use
Scratch to increase your understanding of other topics.
The Try It Out exercises and the problems at the end of each chapter
are designed to challenge your programming skills. They also suggest new
ideas that incorporate the studied concepts into larger problems. I encour-
age you to attempt these exercises and to come up with your own program-
ming problems. Solving problems of your own shows that you’ve developed
a solid understanding of programming.

organization of this text

The first three chapters of this book introduce Scratch as a powerful tool
for drawing geometric shapes and creating media-rich applications. They’ll
get you started quickly and easily, while the rest of the book focuses on the
programming constructs supported in Scratch.

Chapter 1: Getting Started introduces Scratch’s programming envi-
ronment, the available command blocks, and the process of creating
simple programs.
Chapter 2: Motion and Drawing reviews the motion commands and
introduces Scratch’s drawing capabilities.
Chapter 3: Looks and Sound discusses Scratch’s sound and graphics
commands.
Chapter 4: Procedures introduces procedures as a way to write struc-
tured, modular programs. We jump into procedures here to enforce
good programming style from the beginning.
Chapter 5: Variables explores how you can use variables to keep track
of information. This chapter also explains how to ask users questions
and get answers, paving the way for building a wide range of interactive
applications.
Chapter 6: Making Decisions outlines decision making and controlling
the flow of programs.
Chapter 7: Repetition: A Deeper Exploration of Loops discusses in
detail the repetition structures available in Scratch and explains how
to use them through concrete examples.

Chapter 8: String Processing discusses the string data type and pres-
ents a collection of useful string-manipulation routines.
Chapter 9: Lists introduces lists as containers of items and demon-
strates how you can use them to create powerful programs.

Introduction xix

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