By Yu Xin & Yongbeom
Excerpt: As the Scratch workshops come to an end, let’s hear from the facilitators their reflections on the journey to connect people through coding!
Just last Friday, on the 23rd of July, our team of USP freshmen volunteers, in partnership with the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) conducted the final out of three Scratch workshops.
Fig. 1. An image of the Scratch programming environment. Users need to drag “blocks” of code from the leftmost panel and stack the instructions at the centre, where instructions are executed, and users can see the output on the screen on the right. (Source: Kim Yongbeom)
Scratch, the block-based introductory programming language, serves as an ideal introduction to the field since users do not need to learn any syntax, and instead are able to simply drag and stack lego-like blocks of instructions to make a program.
After a clicking game and a simple platformer in the previous few weeks, we taught beneficiaries on writing simple dialogues between characters, as well as making Pong this week, a childhood game for many beneficiaries.
Our approach to the session was also directly shaped by experiences in the previous groups as well, with us reviewing previous facilitators’ notes on the participants if they had attended the previous few workshops. Especially for those that had attended the sessions the previous week, some facilitators noted that the session went much more smoothly than expected, and Eshani, a facilitator of this Scratch Workshop, especially noted that rapport built in the previous weeks even allowed the beneficiaries to be more confident and engaged during the session, proactively taking steps to venture out of their comfort zones, suggesting features to be implemented and learning new programming techniques, much to our delight.
Key Takeaways
For some, this session was the first time we were interacting with a new age group, or teaching Scratch. It was hence not a surprise that we left with more than when we first joined the workshop. As facilitators, Albert and Eshani were reminded to not only “be open” to experiences, but also not to “be afraid to try something new”, for you never know what might come out of it (Well, for Eshani, she now loves scratch!) More importantly, the interactions made with the clients are priceless and to be cherished. In fact, for Yu Xin, also a facilitator of Scratch Workshop 3, connecting with the participant was more important than really finishing the product. Afterall, it's the memories that will last.
Why Scratch?
As we wrap up the Scratch workshops, it is always nice to look back on the initial purpose. Notably, in this technological age, having some understanding of coding would be useful. And Scratch became that perfect avenue for learning.
Being a beginner-friendly platform, Scratch was a great way to let people learn the background on coding, as validated by Albert, a CS1010E student learning to do actual coding for real life problems.
The ease of creating something from scratch (no pun intended) is also a way of getting clients (and ourselves) to figure out how to connect with others through a product. In addition, the endless possibilities of creating games and animations could very well become a new avenue for self-expression.
It’s A Wrap!
For the facilitators, becoming more confident was definitely one of the greatest takeaways. The initial doubts about what to expect were definitely gruelling. But beyond the fears and worries that all the groups have faced, it is almost unanimous that the smiles and happiness from our clients have made a more lasting impression on us.
“[The most meaningful moment] was when I saw [the participant’s] smile, it just warmed my heart.”-- Albert, a facilitator of Scratch Workshop 3
May the warmth from this experience be a constant reminder to us that there is a community out there waiting to be understood and loved!