Paula Bonta facts for kids

Paula Bonta is a super smart computer scientist and software designer from Argentina and Canada. She is well-known for creating fun and educational computer programs especially for kids. You might even know one of her most famous projects: she helped design the Scratch programming language!

What Paula Bonta Does

Paula Bonta focuses on making computer programming easy and exciting for young people. She believes that kids can learn a lot by creating their own digital projects. Her work helps children explore their creativity and learn important problem-solving skills through technology.

Helping Create Scratch

One of Paula's most important contributions was to the Scratch programming language. Even before it was officially called Scratch, she was a key part of its design team. Scratch is a visual programming language that lets you create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. It uses colorful blocks that snap together, making it simple for anyone to learn how to code. Paula's ideas helped make Scratch a friendly and powerful tool for millions of young creators around the world.

Playful Inventions Company

Paula Bonta also co-founded a company called the Playful Invention Company. She started this company with two other clever people, Mitchel Resnick and Brian Silverman. This company came from the MIT Media Lab, which is a famous research lab at a big university. At the Playful Invention Company, Paula works as the Lead Designer. They create new and exciting tools that help people invent and learn through play.

The Programmable Cricket

One cool invention from the Playful Invention Company is the Programmable Cricket. This is a tiny, low-cost computer that you can program to do different things. It's designed to help people learn about electronics and programming in a hands-on way. Paula helped design this tool to make learning about technology more accessible and fun.

Other Amazing Software

Before starting her own company, Paula Bonta was also a lead designer for many other award-winning software products for children. These included programs like MicroWorlds and the "My Make Believe" series. These programs helped kids create their own stories, animations, and projects, encouraging them to use computers as tools for imagination and learning.

Paula's Education

Paula Bonta studied a lot to become such an expert in computer science and education. She earned a degree in computer science. She also has a special graduate degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This means she learned a lot about how people learn, which helps her design the best educational software for kids.