ScratchJr Project Rubric Overview
The ScratchJr Project Rubric is a validated assessment that captures children’s ability to transform their coding knowledge into creating purposeful and creative projects. There are two main aspects in the rubric: Coding Concepts and Project Design. Multiple subcategories in this rubric are highly related to computational thinking concepts such as Sequencing, Events, Repeat, and Number Input. The Coding Concepts evaluate coding blocks’ complexity, efficiency, and functionality, while the Project Design focuses on aesthetic elaboration and customization. The ScratchJr Project Rubric can be administered after children complete their ScratchJr projects, typically taking around 3-5 minutes per project.
Note: This rubric is intended for researchers. If you are an educator looking to use the rubric in the classroom, you may prefer to download the educator version of the rubric instead.
Publications
Unahalekhaka, A., & Bers, M. U. (2022). Evaluating young children’s creative coding: Rubric development and testing for ScratchJr projects. Education and Information Technologies, 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10873-w
Unahalekhaka, A., & Govind, M. (2021). Examining young children’s computational artifacts. In Bers, M. (Ed.). (2021). Teaching Computational Thinking and Coding to Young Children. IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-7308-2
Sample Items
FAQs
How should I grade the project if it has multiple pages?
Grade the entire project as a whole. If the score for each subcategory varies across pages (some pages have more complexity than others), pick the highest score you observe from the project.
If a project has multiple characters that look the same and have the same sequence, should I count them as different characters?
Yes.
If a child has a blank page with some drawing, does the drawing have to be exactly 50% to be counted as a setting?
It depends on your judgment. You can count it if you think the drawing has a high purpose, complexity, and/or enough creativity. There is room for flexibility in the subcategories that relate to customization.
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