Scratch 3.0 has arrived! – What’s new?

CoderDojo clubs around the world use Scratch both online and offline to enable young people to express themselves, create projects, try new things and learn along with their peers. Scratch has been a vital tool not only in developing creative learning, but in also teaching coding concepts and problem-solving skills. Now Scratch 3.0 has been officially released! 

 

What new updates have been added to Scratch 3.0?

This new version expands what, how and where children can create with code. Since the Beta release in August, young people in Dojos have been testing out the latest features. We can’t wait to see what amazing new projects they develop with the full version! Check out our Scratch 3.0 interface poster to help young people in your Dojo get used to the new layout.

 

New characters, backdrops, sounds and editors!

A host of new sprites, backdrops and sounds designed by artists and Scratch community members have been added to Scratch 3.0! As well as new assets, there are new editors make it easier to manipulate and remix sprites, music, and sounds. There are new sound effects more options for selecting and adjusting colours and much more! The designers and engineers also made sure the way children hack the JSON (sound) files in 2.0 still works in 3.0.

Better yet, there is a new search bar so you can type in and find the sprite, backdrop or sound you want, helping you find what you want quicker than ever. Not sure what an image is called? No problem, Scratch 3.0 sprites and sounds also have a filter option to help you get what your looking for to make your next creation!

New Blocks!

No blocks have been removed in Scratch 3.0. Some have changed slightly, some have moved into “Extensions” (for example the Pen and Music blocks) and there are also some completely new blocks!

New blocks include: “sound effect” blocks, new operators that make it easier to work with text (strings), new pen blocks (including support for transparency), and new glide block to move easily to a sprite (or random point).

As well as this you can now use in-line delete to remove a block in the middle of your script. All you have to do is right click on the block you want to delete and select that option, saving you lots of time dragging blocks to remove them!

New extension system!

This allows children to program physical devices including micro:bits and LEGO robotics kits. Kids can keep adding new coding blocks to Scratch. You can program motors, lights, and sensors with the micro:bit, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 and LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0 extensions.  It also allows Dojo attendees to integrate Scratch with web services such as Google Translate. They can program characters to speak in other languages, or to talk out loud with the Amazon Text-to-Speech extension. You can even program characters to respond to your body movements using your webcam and the Video Sensing extension. This library of extensions will continue to grow over time, expanding what you can create with Scratch.

 

New offline editor & device use!

As well as creating, remixing and sharing projects on laptops and desktops, you’ll now be able to do all this on tablets (including ipads) and mobile devices!

No internet? Don’t worry, Scratch 3.0 has an offline editor; Scratch Desktop.

New Tutorials and Activities

The new “Ideas section” of the Scratch website includes tutorials for complete beginners to more advanced coders looking for some inspiration. In addition we have updated our Scratch projects on our resources site. Here is a pathway of Scratch 3.0 projects ready to use. Find the rest of our updated Scratch projects here. Not ready to move to Scratch 3? You can still access the Scratch 2 via the link at the top of each project.

Try out Scratch 3.0 for yourself!