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Harvard University

CS50's Introduction to Programming with Scratch

A gentle introduction to programming that prepares you for subsequent courses in coding.

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Estimated 3 weeks
2-6 hours per week
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About this course

An introduction to programming using Scratch, a visual programming language via which aspiring programmers can write code by dragging and dropping graphical blocks (that resemble puzzle pieces) instead of typing out text. Used at the start of Harvard College's introductory course in computer science, CS50, Scratch was designed at MIT's Media Lab, empowering students with no prior programming experience to design their own animations, games, interactive art, and stories. Using Scratch, this course introduces students to fundamentals of programming, found not only in Scratch itself but in traditional text-based languages (like Java and Python) as well. Topics include: functions, which are instructions that perform tasks; return values, which are results that functions provide; conditions, via which programs can decide whether or not to perform some action; loops, via which programs can take action again and again; variables, via which programs can remember information; and more. Ultimately, this course prepares students for subsequent courses in programming.

Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.


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What you'll learn

  • functions
  • events
  • values
  • conditions
  • loops
  • variables
  • abstraction

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At a glance

  • Institution:
    Harvard University
  • Subject:
    Computer Science
  • Language:
    English
  • Level:
    Introductory
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About the instructors

David J. Malan
David J. Malan
Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science
Harvard University
Brian Yu
Brian Yu
Senior Preceptor in Computer Science
Harvard University

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As a free audit learner, you will have temporary access to all course materials except graded assignments, and you will not earn a certificate the end of the course. You will be able to access the free content for the expected course length posted on the course introduction page in the catalog.

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