event organizing guide - Scratch Day - MIT

event organizing guide

Welcome!
Greetings from the MIT Scratch Team!
We are very excited that you want to learn more about Scratch Day. We hope that you will organize a Scratch
Day event with the members of your own local community. This guide has been designed to help you with
event design, providing many of the resources you might need for a successful event.
All Scratch Day events are different – and you may find that some aspects of this guide are not applicable to
your event. Feel free to pick and choose the elements that interest you most. We love remixing ideas!
Before we explore the details of a Scratch Day event, here is an overview of what you will find in this guide.
introduction
imagine
organize
share
conclusion
hand-outs
In this section, we will explore Scratch Day and how it came to be. This section
also introduces the Scratch and ScratchEd online communities.
Use this section to get started planning your Scratch day event! Brainstorm ideas
and goals for how to make your event meaningful for your participants.
Time for some fun activities! This section will give you examples of different
ways to organize your event.
This section will walk through how to share your event. It describes some things
to think about before, during, and after your event.
How can the Scratch team further support your Scratch day planning efforts? Let
us know and happy Scratch day!
This final section provides some extra resources including a lots of activities and
Scratch cards to help you and your participants get started with Scratch.

introduction
This section will introduce you to the world of Scratch. Scratch is an authoring environment that makes it easy
for people to create their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations – and share their work
with other creators in an online community. Scratch Day is a worldwide network of gatherings designed to
bring the people in this online community together to meet, share, and learn with Scratch.
2

What is Scratch Day?
Scratch Day is a worldwide network of gatherings, where people come together to meet each other, share
projects and experiences, and learn more about Scratch.
Every Scratch Day event is different. All over the world, organizers plan different types of events for different
audiences. Whether you are an experienced Scratcher or new to the Scratch community, Scratch Day is a great
way to celebrate Scratch!
History of Scratch Day
In 2008, we hosted the first Scratch conference. Although the conference was very successful, with hundreds of
people joining us at MIT, there were a few questions that emerged.
First, the conference had been focused on the participation of adults - educators, researchers, and developers
- yet so much of Scratch is driven by the passionate participation of young people. How could young people be
more involved in a gathering like this?
Second, the Scratch community is an international one, with people having attended the conference from 30
different countries around the world. Could the Scratch conference be hosted somewhere else in the world?
From these questions, the Scratch Day concept emerged – a day where people could gather in their local
communities and celebrate with fellow Scratchers! Since the first Scratch Day in 2009, hundreds of events have
been hosted, with thousands of young Scratchers, parents, and educators from around the world participating
in the gatherings.
3

What is Scratch?
Scratch is an authoring environment that makes it easy for people to create their own interactive stories,
games, animations, and simulations – and share their work with other creators in an online community.
Projects are created by snapping together blocks, as one would snap together LEGO bricks or puzzle pieces.
Projects can then be shared with an active online community consisting of hundreds of thousands of registered
members. Community members regularly comment on projects to ask questions and give feedback, create
galleries of related projects, download projects to study their construction, and remix downloaded projects to
be re-shared online.
To learn more about Scratch, visit http://scratched.media.mit.edu/ and watch the introductory video. Also,
check out the forums on the Scratch website for help from the Scratch team and the Scratch community.
http://scratch.mit.edu/
imagine program share
*To read more about the design of Scratch and the Scratch online community, see the following sources:
Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernandez, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., Millner, A., Rosenbaum, E., Silver, J., Silverman, B., &
Kafai, Y. (2009). Scratch: Programming for all. Communications of the ACM, 52(11), 60-67.
Brennan, K., Resnick, M., & Monroy-Hernandez, A. (2010). Making projects, making friends: Online community as catalyst for interactive
media creation. New Directions for Youth Development, 2010(128), 75-83.
4

What is ScratchEd?
ScratchEd is an online community where educators who are working with Scratch (or want to learn more about
working with Scratch) can share stories, exchange resources, ask questions, and connect with other educators.
Scratch is already being used by many educators across a wide range of contexts, from elementary through
college and across disciplinary areas.
On the ScratchEd website, you can find our recently-released Scratch Curriculum Guide. This resource is for
educators who are looking for a guide that provides an introduction to creative computing with Scratch. It is
http://scratched.media.mit.edu/
To learn more about ScratchEd, http://scratched.media.mit.edu/
ED
learn | share | connect
To explore the Curriculum Guide, http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/scratch-curriculum-guide-draft
5

imagine
Scratch Day events come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on your audience, workshops, open houses,
show-and-tell, bar camps, or parties are all fun ways to meet, share, and learn with Scratch. You could offer
an introduction to Scratch or maybe a deeper exploration of Scratch through a theme or genre of project.
6

Goals
What do you want participants to get out of your event?
Setting goals is good for the organizer, as it helps guide planning of the events’ activities. Sharing those goals
with participants is also good, as it helps participants feel prepared for the experience.
At the beginning of the event, discuss the goals (what we want to achieve, the attitudes, knowledge, and skills
to be developed in the session) and agenda (how we will achieve it, the plan for the session) with participants.
The goals and agenda - as well as how explicitly you discuss them will vary with your audience.
The magic of Scratch Day is
that it is what you make it.
Imagine the possibilities – what
will your Scratch Day look like?
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organize
At this point, you’ve defined a vision for what your Scratch day will be like. It’ s time to dig into the details of the
day and identify the resources that you’ll need to make it a success. Organizing an agenda for the day (from
set-up to clean-up) will help you think through what people and resources you might need to get things done.
This section begins with icebreaker activities to help you and your participants get your event started. The
next step is to introduce Scratch. Whether you are hosting an event with participants who are new to Scratch
or experienced Scratchers, an introductory activity is a good way to set the stage and help participants
understand what they will be doing during your event.
After the introductory activities come the main activities. These enable participants to dive deeper into Scratch
and make projects. Finally, the closing activities allow participants to reflect and share their work.
8

Icebreaker Activities
No matter what your event looks like, opening activities, or icebreakers, are often a good way to invite
participants into the day. Even if your Scratch Day participants already know each other, you can have lots of
fun getting to know each other (and Scratch) better. Here are some fun examples of icebreaker activities.
Name Game
Go around the entire group with each person
introducing her/himself, such as sharing name,
motivation for attending, hopes for the workshop
session. For an additional challenge, the current
person could also introduce every previous person.
Colorful Introductions
Create a bowl that contains a bunch of colorful
objects, like a collection of red, blue, and yellow LEGO
bricks. Each color represents different categories of
facts. Each person takes a handful of the objects and
then shares information about him/herself based
on the colors s/he selected. For the workshop, the
questions could have a Scratch flavor.
For Scratchers who are just starting, you could use:
+ Red: Something you notice about the user interface
+ Blue: Your favorite character in the sprite library
+ Yellow: Something you hope to create with Scratch
For Scratchers with some experience, you could use:
+ Red: Your favorite Scratch project
+ Blue: Explanation of a feature you’ve used in Scratch
+ Yellow: Something you would change about Scratch
Personal Flag
Each participant constructs a flag using craft
materials that contains his/her name and represents
her/his interests. People can then introduce their flags
or post them on a shared surface.
Find Someone Who
Make a bingo card sheet with each block containing
an attribute, like:
+ Find someone who has at least 4 Scratch projects
posted online.
+ Find someone who knows who Gobo is.
+ Find someone who has used the broadcast block.
+ Find someone who helps people learn Scratch.
+ Find someone who has been Scratching for more
than a year.
+ Find someone who posts to the Scratch forums.
Participants get to know other Scratchers by finding a
different person to sign each block on their sheet. (See
page 20)
Getting To Know You
On sheets of chart paper write survey questions, like:
+ If you could have an endless supply of any food,
what would you get?
+ If you were an animal, what would you be?
+ What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?
+ If you could visit any place in the world, where
would you choose to go?
+ Are you a morning or a night person?
+ What are your favorite hobbies?
+ What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
+ What three words would you choose to describe
yourself?
Have participants write their answers on post-it notes
that they can cluster on the chart paper to identify
similarities and differences.
9

Introductory Activities
After the opening activities, it is often important to introduce some of the basics of Scratch - as a tool, as an
activity. There are many different ways to introduce Scratch.
Demo
It is often useful to start by showing participants how to build up a project. Just open up Scratch and create
a simple project, like making the cat dance back and forth to a beat. How much you show at once in a demo
depends on numerous factors but some basic tasks that are useful to demo include:
+ how to snap blocks together
+ how to make a sprite move and say something
+ how to add another character
+ how to change the background image
Sample Projects
In addition to showing how easy it is to create a project by snapping blocks together, it is also good to show
participants a range of things that have been created with Scratch. Visit the Scratch website to find projects
that will inspire your participants.
Other Resources
Some workshops are facilitated in a less centralized fashion - leaving the participants to explore the
fundamentals of Scratch through resources rather than through demonstration. The support page on the
Scratch site links to videos, a step-by-step guide to creating a first Scratch project, and a set of cards to explore
various code excerpts. Of course, these approaches are not exclusive. The facilitator can lead with a brief
demo, while making these other resources available to accommodate different learning styles.
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Main Activities
After introducing Scratch, it is time to engage in Scratch design activities. Depending on the length of your
event, several cycles of introducing-creating-sharing may be planned and a variety of activities may be
included. Activities may explore different themes, genres, or constraints. A short project-creating activity could
be followed by a longer activity, or a series of shorter activities could be planned. Here are a few suggestions
for projects.
8 blocks
Getting started with all 100+ blocks in Scratch can
be overwhelming. In this activity, participants create a
project using eight pre-specified blocks. (See page 21)
Monkey Business
Participants start with a new project. The challenge?
Create a project in which something surprising
happens to a monkey.
Interactive Postcard
Are the workshop participants in a location that’s
new to them? Where in the world do participants
wish they were? Participants collect and create audio
and visual representations of a location and create a
project that documents the place. The postcard could
take numerous forms, such as an interactive map or a
photo gallery.
Interactive Us
Participants incorporate their voices and images into
a project, creating something that helps others learn
about themselves and the people, issues, and things
they care about. (See page 22)
Let’s Play
A game has a goal, rules, and an outcome. In this
activity, participants create a game with Scratch. It can
be completely new or a re-creation of an old favorite.
(See page 23)
Pass It On
11
What happens when you share a story? In this activity,
participants each begin a story and have a few
minutes to elaborate on it however they choose.
When the time is up, they pass the computer to
another participant, who continues the story. After one
or two more passes, the story is finished.

Closing Activities
While participants will likely be sharing and collaborating throughout the design process, it is important to
dedicate time to sharing and reflection, so that both participants and facilitators can discuss what happened
and share reflections on or analysis of the activities. Some strategies for sharing and reflection include:
Show and Tell
Each participant (or team of participants) has an opportunity to demonstrate what was created and discuss
design experiences, either with the entire group or in smaller groups. It’s useful to provide some concrete
questions for participants to think about and respond to. What did you and surprising? What was challenging?
What motivated or influenced your project decisions?
Galleries
In addition to sharing with the other participants, the Scratch online community can be used to share projects
developed in the workshop. Create a gallery and encourage participants to post their projects (with project
notes describing how to interact with the project and about the process of creating the project).
Lessons Learned
Reflecting on their processes, participants can create a guide of lessons learned for future Scratchers. What
approaches, techniques, or tips would they recommend? Create a mind map or “Top 10” list of the ideas and
suggestions.
12

share
There are a few different ways to think about sharing your event.
+ Before your event, you will need to share event details with participants so that they can join you!
+ During your event, you may want to document it to share with the participants and the Scratch community.
+ After your event, you will want to think of ways to share your event with others to celebrate all that you
accomplished and to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your event to improve for next year.
The next few pages walk you through some ways to share your event!
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Inviting Participants
Now that you have identified your audience and established the goals for your event, how will you get
participants to join you?
Scratch Day Website
The Scratch Day website allows you to publish your event. The Scratch Day map is an easy way for people to
find out about your event. Just create an account and add your Scratch Day event. You can also use the Scratch
Day website forums to share details, invite people, and get feedback about your plans.
Scratch Forums
To get in touch with an even bigger audience, you can contribute to the Scratch forums, where we’ve set up a
forum dedicated to announcements and discussions about Scratch Day events.
Your Personal Network
Do you belong to any mailing lists that send to people that might be interested in your event? You can ask
friends and colleagues if they have suggestions for electronic outreach, like connecting with a local library,
community center, or school. You can also reach out via social media by creating an event on Facebook or a
hashtag on Twitter.
14

Sharing With Your Community
What happened at your event?
By documenting your day, you’ll have resources for reflection and discussion, both for your event-goers and
for the broader Scratch community. Scratch projects, videos, audio, photos, notes – all of these could help
communicate what you did. The Scratch Day website has a media page, which allows you to connect with
other events via Scratch, ScratchEd, Flickr, Twitter, and Youtube. Make sure you designate someone to be the
photographer or videographer, if you won’t be able to do it yourself. This will make it easy to share your event
with your participants and with the Scratch community.
What did the participants think of your event?
You’ll have ideas about what worked or not, but you may be surprised by which activities were most popular.
Getting feedback from people may give you new insights into your event. For larger events, there are great
tools like SurveyMonkey that enable you to create online surveys that you can send to participants.
15

conclusion
We hope that this guide will help you host an awesome Scratch Day! We have provided you with some
resources, but the best resource is other event organizers just like you. On the Scratch Day website, you can
communicate with other organizers and get tips and ideas from past events. If you have any questions or
comments for how the Scratch team could better support you on your Scratch Day adventure, please do not be
shy in sharing your feedback!
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hand-outs
This section provides you with more resources that will help you make your event a success. First, you will find
two sample agendas for workshop events. Even if your event is not a workshop format, these agendas may
provide you with an outline for how to develop your event. Second, you will find the handout for the “find
someone who” icebreaker activity. Feel free to adapt this format to reflect the personality of your community!
Lastly, the Scratch cards are designed to help new Scratchers get started.
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sample agenda 1
1 hour workshop for small group of Scratch beginners
Welcome and goal setting (5 minutes)
Meeting one another: Name Game (10 minutes)
Going around the room, participants introduce themselves.
Introducing Scratch (5 minutes)
In preparation for the hands-on activity, facilitator demonstrates:
+ how to snap blocks together
+ how to make a sprite move and say something
+ how to add another character
Creating projects: Collaborative story (25 minutes)
Each participant spends 10 minutes starting a story in Scratch, passing the story on to another participant at
the end of the time block. The next participant has 10 minutes, then the final person has 5 minutes to finish the
story.
Sharing experiences: Show and tell (10 minutes)
Participants review their own and their neighbors’ stories and share their observations about Scratch.
Preparing for next steps (5 minutes)
Facilitator introduces the Scratch online community, shows some sample projects, and closes by answering
questions.
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sample agenda 2
2.5 hour workshop for beginner Scratch educators
Welcome and goal setting (5 minutes)
Meeting one another: Find someone who (15 minutes)
Using the sheet, participants find others to sign their grid’s blocks.
Introducing Scratch (5 minutes)
Facilitator demonstrates the fundamentals of Scratch by showing how to snap blocks together.
Creating projects: 8 blocks (20 minutes)
In pairs, participants create a project using only eight pre-specified blocks.
Sharing experiences: Show and tell (15 minutes)
Participants review their own and their neighbors’ projects, and share their observations about Scratch.
Introducing Scratch (20 minutes)
Facilitator introduces the Scratch online community, showing a collection of sample projects to demonstrate the
variety of projects that can be created with Scratch. Then in preparation for the next hands-on activity,
facilitator demonstrates how to use Scratch to create an interactive postcard.
Creating projects: Interactive postcard (40 minutes)
In pairs or individually, participants create an interactive postcard for a place they’ve been or would like to go.
Sharing experiences: Lessons learned (20 minutes)
Participants review their own and their neighbors’ projects, and share their observations about Scratch to
generate a list of suggestions for other educators.
Preparing for next steps (10 minutes)
Facilitator introduces the ScratchEd online community, shows the different areas (stories, resources, discussions,
members), and closes by answering questions.
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FIND SOMEONE WHO
Get to know other participants by finding a different person to sign each block on your page.
came to the
workshop by
car
has lived in
two other
cities
has met
someone
famous
has recently
been on
vacation
is completely
new to
Scratch
draws or
paints as a
hobby
loves hot
weather
has been to
the workshop
venue before
owns a pet
loves to play
board games
with friends
has taught
someone else
to use
Scratch
has used a
Scratch
sensor board
speaks
another
language
has taught
someone how
to ride a
bicycle
teaches high
school
students
is currently
reading a
novel

What can you build with these 8 blocks?
What can you build with these 8 blocks?

Interactive Us
Create a project that helps others learn about you
and the people, issues, and things you care about.

LET’S PLAY!
Games provide numerous opportunities to explore a variety of computational concepts and skills.
Here are some blocks that are frequently useful in games.
TOUCHING
See if two sprites are touching or
if a sprite is touching a color
TIMING
Have the computer keep track of
time for you
COMPARE
Compare values to help make
decisions within your game
VISIBILITY
Make a sprite appear or disappear
STRINGS
Test, access, and change words
and sentences
KEY PRESS
Make a sprite respond when different
keys are pressed
RANDOM
Get a computer-generated number
from within a specified range
VARIABLES
Store a number or string in a
container to access later

day.scratch.mit.edu