Pen Art in Scratch Programming: the art of programming and the programming of art

** Unleash the creative artist in you while enjoying the friendly Scratch programming environment.** Whether you are a beginner or an expert programmer, you will find turtle programming exciting and challenging. This book explores how the “Pen” feature of Scratch can be used to create interesting designs. Pen programming (aka Turtle programming) provides a visual feedback by providing a clear trace of the sprite’s movements. This is very helpful, especially for those who are new to the world of programming. It helps in analyzing your own thinking and serves as a debugging tool. Turtle programming challenges students to recognize patterns and learn effective use of the divide-and-conquer approach to create seemingly complex designs. And last but not the least, it stimulates artistic creativity. Students are inspired to create interesting designs while simultaneously developing analytical and programming skills.

As a freelance teacher, Abhay's area of interest has been "teaching Computer Programming as a medium for learning" and he has been teaching Scratch, Snap, and Python regularly to middle and high school students and college students in the US and India. In 2011 Abhay co-authored (with Sandesh Gaikwad) two books on Logo Programming and later he authored two books on Scratch: "Learn CS Concepts with Scratch" and "Advanced Scratch Programming". Abhay has been associated with the Software Industry since 1988 as a programmer, leader, and entrepreneur. After getting an MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University (USA), he worked for product companies that developed operating systems, network protocols, and secure software. In 1997, Abhay co-founded Disha Technologies, a successful software services organization. As an ERP/Business Process consultant and Project Management specialist, Sandesh is actively involved in the training, coaching and mentoring of software professionals on technical topics as well as on leadership, communication, and project management. Sandesh started his career in Software industry in 1991 and has worked across the globe in a variety of roles. Prior to that he was a lecturer and taught assembly language and Pascal programming to engineering students. He has been teaching computer programming to high school students since 2008. Programming remains a favorite hobby of the authors, and they continue to explore the "entertaining, intellectual, and educational" aspects of programming. Abhay lives in Seattle, USA and Sandesh lives in Pune, India.