It’s a new year, it’s a new day for you and coding! Lero, supported by the Irish Computer Society, are running a Scratch computer programming course. It is open to primary and secondary school students.

I have posted about Scratch before here –  games, Scratch fun, and MIT p/f.

The students use Scratch, a graphical programming open-source language to make animations and games.

“This is our third year running the Irish Scratch competition and we are looking forward to seeing Scratch project submissions for 2012,” said Clare McInerney, education and outreach officer at Lero.
“Last year, a Scratch implementation of ‘Space Wars’ received first prize in the junior section. In ‘Space Wars’, space invaders shoot at a spaceship and this in turn shoots back.
“’Mem your mind,’ based on the brain training model, received first prize in the gaming category. Judges were impressed by the professionalism and high-spec production ready software of this project,” she said.

One hundred and fifty teachers took part in Scratch training this year to allow them to teach the programme to students. I was one of them, and now; now I teach it.

Students can register for the competition online and entries can be submitted by 12.03.12. The finals will be held on 19 May.