The 2022 Scratch Competition will launch this week, run by the Irish Computer Society (ICS) and supported by Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre. The Scratch Competition promotes computing and software development at both primary and secondary school levels.
Since the inception of the Scratch competition in 2010, coding has become much more popular and is seen as an essential skill for the future. Scratch is a visual programming language that encourages children to develop essential coding skills through fun and interactive learning. It challenges students to create stories, games and animations using software. It encourages innovation and creativity while giving them a taste of possible future careers in the growing IT sector.
Schools all over Ireland are now invited to register and take part in this year’s competition. The Scratch National Final will take place on May 18th of 2022. The closing date for entries and deadline for project submissions is 16th March 2022.
Mary Cleary, Secretary General of ICS said, “Scratch is an ideal introduction to programming for young people, allowing development and sharing of their own interactive stories, games, and animations. Not only does it give young people a flavour of the world of IT and its potential for them to participate in, it helps them to think creatively, solve problems and work collaboratively in the broadest sense.”
Education and Outreach Manager at Lero, Clare McInerney, said, “Scratch is a great tool for giving students the opportunity to build their computational thinking and problem solving skills. We encourage all Scratch enthusiasts to submit their project for the Scratch competition.”
For more information please see scratch.ics.ie or contact info@techweek.ie
