Skip to content

Category: Computer Science

Teaching recursion with Scratch BYOB

One of the biggest limits we came across teaching with Scratch this year is the inability to write methods and use parameters.  Methods, returns, and parameters are probably the only major concept in our intro CompSci class that we can’t teach in Scratch; so we introduced them in Alice this past year.  It worked ok, but we haven’t been able to come up with any really good labs that explain the purpose of parameters well to the students.

This past week I came across an extended version of Scratch called Scratch BYOB, or Build Your Own Block.  And it does exactly what I was looking for.  It gives you the ability to create methods and optionally include parameters.