- Tell students to think about functions the same way, something an object does over and over again.
- Ask students to think of a car and things that cars do over and over again.
- Cars accelerate, back up, brake, have people press buttons, have pedals pushed.
- You are not responsible for all the stuff that happens after you push down the break, you are simply responsible for pushing the break, for calling the function.
- This is a helpful way to introduce the abstraction involved in teaching functions.
- Tell Students to think of how an object responds when performing that function
- Ask a student what happens when a can begins to accelerate, what else is involved (such as wheels moving, steering wheel turning). This helps with rounding out the concept of a function when it’s reintroduced with return values, etc.