THE POTENTIAL OF SCRATCH TO SUPPORT PROJECT-BASED LEARNING ACROSS DIFFERENT SUBJECTS

The paper describes how Scratch can be used as a tool to enhance the teaching-learning process across the curriculum. It presented the potential of the building-block visual programming environment to support project-based learning across different subjects and to help students learn to think creatively and work collaboratively. Outlined below are several cross-curricular Scratch projects linked to other subjects at elementary school.

Introduction:
The interdisciplinary approach has been used in many ways and at different levels of educational system. Interdisciplinary strategies are useful for students to broaden students' knowledge in specific discipline and to solve specific problems, to encourage a student’s lifelong learning practice, academic skills, and personal growth.

Methodology:
Rational for using Scratch as educational tool
Scratch is a free computer programming environment. Students can create a wide variety of interactive media projects – animations, stories, games, and more – and share those projects with others in an online community.

Scratch supports the development of 21st century learning skills. It opens up the opportunity for students to acquire important skills highlighted in the ISTE Standards for Students:
• Empowered learner – students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
• Digital citizen – students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
• Knowledge constructor – students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
• Innovative Designer – students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
• Computational thinker – students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
• Creative communicator – students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
• Global collaborator – students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

Methodology for using Scratch as interdisciplinary tool:
The methodology could be useful for teachers (grade 3 and up) who wish to use Scratch as a tool for project-based learning across different subjects and who wish to broaden their strategies for teaching and integrating technology in the educational process.
The methodology for student's interdisciplinary project-based learning depends on the specificity of the learning disciplines and the age of the learners. The scientific and cognitive activity of the young students (3rd and 4th grade) at the earliest stages takes the form of performing reproductive activities, as this is the period in which they develop their cognitive skills.