About the Author

Rachel Ziter was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She earned a Bachelor of Science in education and her teaching credentials from Florida Southern College. She has also completed graduate coursework in computer science education at St. Scholastica, as well as professional development in fablab project-based learning at NuVu. Rachel works at the Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas and is a member of the Tech Team. She works in STEM curriculum and instruction, mentoring students across all grades school-wide, with direct teaching responsibility for all lower school (JK-6th) coding and engineering. Rachel was a founding teacher in Dawson College Bound, a regional program mentoring high-performing youth toward high school and college success. During the summer, she teaches coding to children across the valley through Spark Skill. As a former competitive lacrosse player in college, Rachel enjoys coaching club lacrosse and a variety of other sports.

Reviews

Full-color screenshots of exactly how things will appear on a computer screen are shown large size, in line with font sizing and spacing designed with the audience--independent readers--in mind, producing a book that minimizes the need for adult assistance. While this surprisingly packed volume doesn't touch much on troubleshooting and mucking about in code to see what happens as some other Scratch guides for kids do, its approach (emphasizing the purpose of each step it asks readers to take) is clear, thorough, and especially accessible for less-confident learners. The extensive instructions on image creation and animation will enable just about anyone to create something nifty, and they provide tools for those with artistic aspirations to advance with their own embellishments. . . .A must for any collection of programming books for kids.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

This colorfully illustrated introduction to coding in Scratch provides easy instructions for more than 17 fun projects for elementary-aged kids. . . .Readers will be excited to try creating these appealing projects on their own.-- "Booklist Online"

Ziter clearly explains how to use the program, from signing in to using the scripts tab and selecting sounds from the sound library. . . .Through the range of projects, readers will gain a sense of the versatile applications for Scratch coding.-- "Publishers Weekly"