Department of Computer Science, VVM’s Shree Damodar College of Commerce & Economics, Margao in collaboration with Computer Society of India (CSI), Goa Chapter, organized a first of its kind workshop for school children on “Programming with Scratch” in two batches from 27th to 29th April and 2nd to 4th May, 2017 respectively. Scratch is a visual programming language designed by MIT, Massachusetts having 2.5 million active users worldwide. The hands-on workshop to create animations, stories and games witnessed enthusiastic participation of students between 6th to 9th standards from some of the best schools in Margao. Participants were provided with state of the art laptops, necessary software and above all greatly engaging sessions by qualified instructors and student volunteers from the Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) program.
On the first day the participants were introduced to the interface of the Scratch programming language. In the process, they learned to use sprites, design backdrop and mix sounds with movements of characters. On the second day, the participants got to work with multiple sprites especially to create games and animations. On the third day of the workshop, they learned to work with multiple backdrops with showing and hidings of sprites, keeping the objective of story creation.
Addressing the participants, Ms Shailaja Sardessai, Chaiperson, Computer Society of India (CSI), Goa Chapter 
congratulated the students for opting the course and made them aware of the advance tools that are available for students of their age group. Principal of Shree Damodar College of Commerce and Economics, Margao, Dr Prita D. Mallya appreciated the animations and games designed by the participants and distributed participation certificates. Encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by the participants and valuable and encouraging feedbacks from their parents, the Department of Computer Science is all geared up to conduct the advance level of the Scratch Programming Workshop in the near future.
