Partnering with Students to Learn Computer Programming
Specializing in:
Home Schooled Students, Students with High-Functioning Autism &
Students Who Simply Love Computers

Free Programming Environments for Kids and Adults

 

Scratch - http://scratch.mit.edu From MIT's Media Lab - "Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design."

Kids, you must check it out! Post your games online.

Here are Links to just some of the sources of information on Scratch

Download Scratch, and if you haven't downloaded recently take down the newest version, 1.4. It takes seconds and is worth it.

To download Scratch 1.4

Scratch Ed by Karen Brennan An amazing resource filled with complete Lesson Plans and More!

Learning Sources for Scratch

*Check out the Scratch Board and WeDo Legos*

Start here for information on the Scratch Board

WeDo Legos- Now works with Scratch 1.4

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

OLPC

OLPC - A portable Operating System on a Flash Drive called: Sugar on a Stick

Alice - "Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience." http://www.alice.org/

Alice is a free programming environment from Carnegie Melon originally developed by Randy Pausch.

To Download Alice

Game Maker Resources

Game Maker - is a free environment that enables users to create games by using simple drag and drop techniques. Advanced users can then move on to create more sophisticated games by using the scripting Game Maker Language. GameMaker has a large community consisting of free tutorials, a site where students can post their games and help groups where users can exchange information on problems and solutions. It is widely used in the educational community around the world and has a impressive collection of information for educators. I encourage users, parents and educators to investigate all areas of the Web site at http://www.yoyogames.com/make. I encourage both users, parents and educators to investigate all areas of the Web site at http://www.yoyogames.com/make .

In addition, I highly recommend a book written by the creators of Game Maker "The Game Maker's Apprentice, Game Development for Beginners, by Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars. The book can be bought off their Web site or from Amazon.

To Download GameMaker

Link to Beginning Game Maker Tutorial

Link to Gold's Game Maker Central

Drag and Drop to Game Maker Language Reference Manual

Drag and Drop to GML arranged by Tabs

 

Java - needs no introduction, and everything you need to run is free. The wealth of free tutorials and documentation is extraordinary.

Sun Download Java SE 5

Download the Eclipse Development Environment

Beginning Java, Game Programming - Second Edition by Jonathan S. Harbour, University of Advancing Technology, Thomson, Boston, MA http://www.courseptr.com

Sun the Really Big Index - (after java download start here)

Sun OO Tutorials

Sun Java API's 5.0

Link to Marshfield HS Object Oriented Course

Link to Marshfield HS AP Java Course

 

Articles, Web sites and Free Computer Programming Resources