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Provide students with App Inventor starter code they can modify and build on so they have an opportunity to play around in App Inventor without becoming overwhelmed by starting from scratch.
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Have pair programming groups rotate computers every 10 minutes in an activity where they have to continue to solve the assigned problem using other pairs’ code to motivate writing good comments.
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Help students find bugs by drawing or writing out what their code does at each step.
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Remind students that the computer will run any code that compiles, no matter how unreasonable, because it doesn’t have the ability to determine if code is reasonable or not.
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Misconception: Students believe that in a primitive assignment, x = y could be the equivalent of y = x; they think that the computer science “=” sign is the same as the mathematical “=” sign.
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Trace through example code in class to show and encourage students to debug effectively
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Teach students to storyboard in Alice so they know a systematic process to follow when approaching challenging problems.
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Misconception: Students have trouble understanding the difference between the “glide” and “go to” blocks in Scratch.
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Have students play the Gidget debugging game for practice debugging in an engaging environment.
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Misconception: Students have difficulty transitioning from working with one sprite to multiple sprites in Scratch.
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Misconception: Students get frustrated when they try to point their character to the left and it ends up flipped upside down because they don’t understand how changing the direction a sprite faces works in Scratch.
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As a debugging technique, have students write out their programs in their spoken language and compare their description to the code in order to find bugs.
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Reassure students that, over time, they will develop more accurate hypotheses when debugging.
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Have students break their code into smaller pieces to find out where the bug might be.
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Encourage students to modify and break provided code as a way to better understand the code and its underlying concepts.
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Teach students to use a system of inquiry, testing, and refining to debug their code, develop better coding habits, and deal with their frustration.
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Have students decompose problems in a more structured way by acting as project managers who need to build teams (of methods and classes) and divide the work amongst them in a clearly organized manner.
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Have students explain their problem and ask questions about it to an inanimate object when debugging so they have a clearer idea of what the problem is before asking for help.
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Show students how to use StackOverflow appropriately to establish standards for using internet resources in your classroom and beyond.
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