Reflections on Scratch Educator Meetup @ MIT: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Thanks to everyone who attended the April 2013 Scratch Educator Meetup. Here are some reflections from the event:

Attendees
Below is a list of people who attended the meetup on Saturday:

• Michael April
• Christine Blaszczynski
• Sandra Bleecker
• Rosemary Brancato
• Jesse Campbell
• Janet Dee
• Colm Duffin
• Pamela Jones
• Lorraine Leo
• Doug McGlathery
• Colin Meltzer
• Barbara Mikolajczak
• Gina Rossi
• Rosemary Slattery
• Anne Marie Wyman
• Karen Brennan
• Michelle Chung
• Jeff Hawson
• Laura Johnson
• Matthew Ong
• Roshi Razavi

To connect with someone from the meetup, click on their name above and leave a message on their profile page.

Recap

• Networking: What do you want to do today? - Attendees were asked what goals/questions/expectations they had for the meetup. These were captured on sticky notes and collected on the reflection wall to help shape the day's agenda.
• Introductions - During introductions, Michelle gathered everyone in a circle and asked each person to say their name, three words/phrases to describe themself, and one goal or question they had shared during the "What do you want to do today?" activity.
• Breakout Sessions - Based on participants' interests at the meetup, two main breakout groups emerged. Colin and Gina led a hands-on session with Scratch 2.0, including working on design challenges, WeDo/Kinect extensions, and trying out new camera feature. Across the room, Janet led a discussion session around using Scratch with high school students. Check out Laura's discussion notes here and Janet's reflections here.
• Photos - Check out photos from the gathering on the ScratchEd Flickr pool.

Show & Tell Presentations

• Rosemary S. presented maze projects created by her high school students and talked about different ways students could add extensions to a basic maze, for example, adding levels, score, a timer, or enemies.
• Colin, Jesse, Rosemary B., and Mike demonstrated their Rube Goldberg machine, combining the WeDo, Kinect, and Scratch 2.0.
• Anne Marie shared two projects made by middle school students she works with. The first is a book report that a group of students requested to present using Scratch and the second is a physics game inspired by Angry Birds.
• Gina, Karen, and Jeff talked about what they discovered about the new camera feature in Scratch 2.0 while collaboratively building an interactive trampoline project.
• Doug presented on his use of Scratch with local high school students, describing his curriculum and sharing some example projects.
• Karen gave a quick update about Scratch Day 2013 and the MIT's Scratch Day event.

Do you have any other reflections, questions, or suggestions about the meetup? Please share them below.