Scratch Vocabulary

Cloning

A Scratch feature that allows a sprite to create duplicates of itself while the project is running.

Critique group

A group of designers who share ideas and test projects-in-progress with one another in order to get feedback on how to further develop their projects.

Profile page

A page on the Scratch online community dedicated to displaying information about a Scratch user, such as projects they have created or bookmarked (a.k.a. "Favorited").

Gallery walk

A sharing activity in which students put their projects in presentation mode and then walk around and explore each other's projects.

Studio

A user-created gallery in the Scratch online community that can be used to highlight projects contributed by one or many users.

Animation

An illusion of continuous motion created by the rapid display of a sequence of still images with incremental differences.

Scripts

One or more Scratch blocks connected together to form a sequence.

Costume

One out of possibly many "frames" or alternate appearances of a sprite. A sprite can change its look to any of its costumes.

Backdrop

One out of possibly many frames, or backgrounds, of the stage.

Stage

The background of a Scratch project. The stage can have scripts, backdrops (costumes), and sounds, similar to a sprite.

Sequence

The computational concept of identifying a series of steps for a task.

Events

The computational concept of one thing causing another thing to happen.

Loops

The computational concept of running the same sequence multiple times.

Data

The computational concept of storing, retrieving, and updating values.

Operators

The computational concept of supporting mathematical and logical expressions.

Experimenting and iterating

The computational practice of developing a little bit, then trying it out, then developing some more.

Abstracting and modularizing

The computational practice of exploring connections between the whole and the parts.

Reusing and remixing

The computational practice of making something by building on existing projects or ideas.

Testing and debugging

The computational practice of making sure things work -- and finding and solving problems when they arise.

Computational practices

The distinctive habits of mind that programmers develop as they work, such as experimenting and iterating, testing and debugging, remixing and reusing work, and abstracting and modularizing.