Brandon R. Rodriguez

Give students a fully functional program on Day 1 that they will incrementally add features to as you cover content throughout the semester to engage them by satisfying their desire for creating working code.

Share Give students a fully functional program on Day 1 that they will incrementally add features to as you cover content throughout the semester to engage them by satisfying their desire for creating working code. with FacebookShare Give students a fully functional program on Day 1 that they will incrementally add features to as you cover content throughout the semester to engage them by satisfying their desire for creating working code. with Twitter

Require students to refactor their code while keeping the output of their program exactly the same in order to challenge them to solve problems using a variety of strategies.

Share Require students to refactor their code while keeping the output of their program exactly the same in order to challenge them to solve problems using a variety of strategies. with FacebookShare Require students to refactor their code while keeping the output of their program exactly the same in order to challenge them to solve problems using a variety of strategies. with Twitter

Track the variable values of a recursive function using multiple pieces of paper to form a “stack” so that students can visualize what happens when a method calls itself and how each method call has its own unique variable values.

Share Track the variable values of a recursive function using multiple pieces of paper to form a “stack” so that students can visualize what happens when a method calls itself and how each method call has its own unique variable values. with FacebookShare Track the variable values of a recursive function using multiple pieces of paper to form a “stack” so that students can visualize what happens when a method calls itself and how each method call has its own unique variable values. with Twitter

Show code without inheritance before showing code that uses inheritance so that students create a tacit understanding of the benefits inheritance provides.

Share Show code without inheritance before showing code that uses inheritance so that students create a tacit understanding of the benefits inheritance provides. with FacebookShare Show code without inheritance before showing code that uses inheritance so that students create a tacit understanding of the benefits inheritance provides. with Twitter

Introduce a (sometimes silly) back-story for why students need to write particular methods to motivate them and see how their work might be needed in industry jobs.

Share Introduce a (sometimes silly) back-story for why students need to write particular methods to motivate them and see how their work might be needed in industry jobs. with FacebookShare Introduce a (sometimes silly) back-story for why students need to write particular methods to motivate them and see how their work might be needed in industry jobs. with Twitter

Have students compete calculating to the 50th Fibonacci number, one team of humans doing the math versus a team students writing a program to stress the importance of computing for calculations.

Share Have students compete calculating to the 50th Fibonacci number, one team of humans doing the math versus a team students writing a program to stress the importance of computing for calculations. with FacebookShare Have students compete calculating to the 50th Fibonacci number, one team of humans doing the math versus a team students writing a program to stress the importance of computing for calculations. with Twitter

Use Shapes, Rectangles, and Squares to teach objects and inheritance in Java, tell students they’re the only ones who can complete the job for extra engagement.

Share Use Shapes, Rectangles, and Squares to teach objects and inheritance in Java, tell students they’re the only ones who can complete the job for extra engagement. with FacebookShare Use Shapes, Rectangles, and Squares to teach objects and inheritance in Java, tell students they’re the only ones who can complete the job for extra engagement. with Twitter

Give students a large data file to sort when teaching sorting algorithms to remind students that computers are great at dealing with a large set of data.

Share Give students a large data file to sort when teaching sorting algorithms to remind students that computers are great at dealing with a large set of data. with FacebookShare Give students a large data file to sort when teaching sorting algorithms to remind students that computers are great at dealing with a large set of data. with Twitter
Subscribe to Brandon R. Rodriguez