STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State University’s efforts to offer something for everyone brought educators from eight states together in late March to interact with a coding language designed to interest young learners in STEM topics.

MSU Extension Service hosted the Scratch 2024 Southern U.S. Ecosystem Convening, a two-day event that allowed participants to explore the capabilities of Scratch and ScratchJr. This free software uses a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games and animations.

Educators have embraced the simplicity of the software that uses coding to introduce children to science, technology, engineering, mathematics and art. Mariah Morgan, a specialist in the Extension Center for 4-H Youth Development, said 4-H has incorporated ScratchJr into two curriculums aimed at 5- to 8-year-olds.

“We want to engage children early in coding literacy,” Morgan said. “Through a joint partnership with 4-H and the Center for Technology Outreach, we have one program that uses Scratch to teach kids how to be a 4-H’er and the other merges early childhood literacy with coding literacy.”

Scratch is designed, developed and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organization that hosted the Scratch Education Collaborative at MSU. This gathering of the Scratch ecosystem allowed educators to learn from each other and share ideas on coding as they practiced their own skills.

Kim Thomas-Cain, Scratch Foundation outreach learning and engagement manager, said among the objectives of the gathering is to gain a deeper understanding of the Scratch learning philosophy by engaging in activities that push participants to think, share their identity and use their voice.

“We are educating students for a world we don’t even know what it will look like,” Thomas-Cain said. “We can’t teach them to just do one thing, and they’ll be prepared for the world. We have to teach critical thinking so they can engage in the world of the future.”

At the workshop, participants tried their hand at programming with Scratch and took part in a variety of hands-on activities.

Sandra Jackson, Extension program associate in Winston County, uses Scratch in the robotics club she leads and also in a storytelling exercise with second and third graders.

“I read a story to the kids, then put them in groups and have one group each do the beginning, middle and end of the story,” Jackson said. “I have each group come up and retell the story using Scratch, presented on a computer tablet.”

Elaine Atherton, head of programs for the Scratch Foundation, said more than 100 million people use Scratch. Developed out of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Media Lab, the software is geared toward young people ages 8-16.

“Our vision is to increase access and eliminate gaps that have limited creative coding opportunities for educators and students in historically underrepresented communities,” Atherton said. “We want to realign the resources of the Scratch Foundation toward a greater focus on serving marginalized communities and local organizations that support them with creative coding opportunities.”

A final part of the vision is to spread creative, caring, collaborative and equitable approaches to coding and learning around the world.

Learn more about 4-H programs at http://extension.msstate.edu/4-h.