PBS KIDS ScratchJr App Helps Children Learn Coding Concepts

Developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Tufts University’s DevTech Research Group, new app helps kids learn coding concepts as they create their own stories and games featuring favorite PBS KIDS characters

This month PBS KIDS launched PBS KIDS ScratchJr, a free app developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Tufts University’s Developmental Technologies Research Group. Available now on iPad and Android tablets, PBS KIDS ScratchJr helps children ages 5-8 learn core coding concepts as they create their own interactive stories and games using PBS KIDS characters.

PBS KIDS ScratchJr incorporates PBS KIDS media properties, including WILD KRATTS, WORDGIRL, PEG + CAT and the new series NATURE CAT. As kids snap together colorful programming blocks to make their favorite characters move, jump, dance and sing, they will learn to solve problems, design projects and express themselves creatively.  My daughter has been really interested in learning more about coding and I think this is great that PBS Kids offers a free app that helps kids learn while having fun with their favorite PBS Kids characters.

“PBS KIDS ScratchJr uses the power of technology to help children learn,” said Sara DeWitt, Vice President, PBS KIDS Digital. “The PBS KIDS ScratchJr App puts kids in the driver’s seat, where they express themselves through storytelling. While kids are playing with their favorite characters, they are also exploring the basics of coding, an important 21st-century literacy.”  I was just speaking with another mom about the interesting technologically-advanced world our kids are growing up in – from smart phones to learning coding skills, they are subjected to a different world than what we grew up in.  Not to age myself or anything, but we didn’t even have the internet in college!  If we wanted to research something we would head to the library!  My daughter is always blown away (and calls me old) when I tell her stories like this. Funny girl, she likes to say I lived in prehistoric times.  I guess for these kids it would seem strange to not have iPhones or the internet since that is what they have always known.

In tandem with the launch of the app, PBS KIDS ScratchJr companion activities will also be available. Local PBS stations, schools and other organizations will be able to use these activities to create educational hands-on experiences for young children with PBS KIDS ScratchJr. These activities are available through PBS LearningMedia in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week (December 7-13) and the Hour of Code. Additional materials will be available in the coming months.

The app has been developed as part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS Ready To Learn Initiative with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Ready To Learn is a federal program that supports the development of innovative educational television and digital media targeted at preschool and early elementary school children and their families.

Through outreach efforts supported by Verizon and Ready To Learn, PBS member stations will extend the reach of PBS KIDS ScratchJr to underserved communities. In 2016, local stations across the U.S. will use PBS KIDS ScratchJr content to help children in their communities learn coding skills through outreach programs and partnerships with Title I schools. Verizon will also be supporting the development of afterschool activities and a weeklong summer camp. In addition, via PBS stations, teachers will be provided professional development workshops on coding and integrating PBS KIDS ScratchJr into the classroom and afterschool activities.

“Coding is becoming as fundamental as the three Rs,” said Marina Umaschi Bers, professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts and director of the Tufts’ Development Technologies research group, which co-developed ScratchJr. “Children who learn to code at a young age through ScratchJr learn to engage in problem-solving and develop skills that are important building blocks for future academic growth.”

“We see coding as a new way for people to organize, express and share their ideas,” said Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and Director of the Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab. “Coding is not just a set of technical skills, but a new type of literacy and personal expression, valuable for everyone, much like learning to write.”

PBS KIDS ScratchJr is now available for free from the App Store on iPad and from the Google Play store on Android tablet. More information on PBS KIDS apps is available at pbskids.org/apps.