What’s New in this edition

WHAT’S NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION

This second edition reflects recent trends in programming instruction. Specifically, this book uses programming languages that start you down the path of learning basic coding skills you can apply over and over as you learn more.

This edition of the book covers:

• Scratch: This learning language developed at MIT is so popular that it is arguably “the” starter programming language. As such, this book features several projects in the most recent version of Scratch — Scratch 3.0. (But for those of you who may be running an older, offline version of Scratch, you’ll still be able to do most projects.) Scratch is a block-based language that lets new coders comfortably step into the world of computer programming. And it’s fun!
• JavaScript: JavaScript is used in everything from apps to websites to electronics. Kids can begin learning in block-based mode of JavaScript, and then transition to text-based mode as they build skills and confidence in coding. In this book, JavaScript projects are presented through MakeCode, a platform for coding instructions that can operate a small electronics board called a micro:bit.

Best of all, the tools in this edition are free, available online, and easy-to-use.