Intro to Coding with Scratch
Tags: beginners, learning, coding, programming
Published: 2023-12-03 21:06:41

Most people I've talked to who start their coding journey learning HTML and CSS usually end up hitting a roadblock when they begin learning JavaScript. 

At least that was my experience.

Learning HTML and CSS felt like a piece of cake, and suddenly I was faced with something completely alien.  

I started my coding journey with [freeCodeCamp's](https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn) [Responsive Web Design course](https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/2022/responsive-web-design/) and it was awesome! I was learning HTML and CSS; feeling very satisfied and happy. Until... I got to JavaScript.

<img width="100%" style="width:100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/xU1spRleFHmtjvskXw/giphy.gif">

SO CONFUSING!

It felt like all of the motivation I had was slowly leaking out of me. 

Eventually, I got the basics down and my motivation returned, but it certainly took a while. I specifically remember being very confused by the concept of loops. It took a while to figure out what was actually happening within a loop.

If only I had known about [Scratch](https://scratch.mit.edu/) earlier!
<br>

###Sooo.. what's Scratch?
It's a great platform for people (children and adults), with no programming experience to understand fundamental programming concepts. Instead of memorizing syntax and struggling to comprehend some basic coding logic, there's a more intuitive way to learn these things.

And that way is Scratch!

You can use Scratch to create animated movies, games, quizzes, pretty much anything you can think of you can create. To create a program you use drag-and-drop code blocks. 

Just to give you an idea of how that looks, here's an example of the "code" from a small story/game I made.

![Screenshot of the code editor on scratch for my game help the witch find her wand](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9up7qterhxog8zhby11a.png)

---

Overall it's an amazing platform. If you are learning HTML/CSS and haven't gotten to JavaScript or you're just starting to learn programming, definitely give Scratch a try.

Even just writing a couple of programs on Scratch will make learning a real programming language so much easier.
<br>

###Harvard's Scratch Course
If you're feeling motivated to try Scratch, Harvard offers a free 3-week long course entirely devoted to Scratch, called [CS50's Introduction to Programming with Scratch](https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50s-introduction-programming-scratch).

![Screenshot of Harvard's Scratch course](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/06j4qtjpharpb8pdtjap.png)

---

Well, that's it for this post! By the way, this post is not sponsored by Scratch - I just think the platform is super innovative. I only wish that my middle or high school had offered an Intro to Programming course using Scratch. Maybe then I would have realized my passion for coding much earlier. 

If you're looking for more resources to learn how to code check out my [Free Coding Resources](https://elliezub.github.io/Free-Coding-Resources/) site, it has links to a bunch of my favorite courses/resources!

If you have any questions or want to connect, the best place to reach me is on [Twitter/X](https://twitter.com/elliezub).

Happy coding!