On November 20th and 21st, ARTStemmers joined together for our autumn weekend of learning and fellowship, for our first whole-group gathering since the summer workshop in August.
First up, on Friday afternoon, was ARTStem’s collaboration with the Center for Design Innovation—a hands-on SCRATCH workshop that was part of the CDI’s roster of events during the Winston-Salem Arts Council’s recent “6 Days in November.” SCRATCH is a free, downloadable computer programming language/application designed by folks at the MIT Media Lab, who explain that “Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.”
Participants, most of whom had no prior experience with SCRATCH, spent the afternoon learning the basics of creating "games" or short animations with the application, and had the added benefit of Winston-Salem State University arts faculty member, Scott Betz, being there to help us troubleshoot. Thanks, Scott!
