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Show students examples of unreachable code to help them reason about how conditionals are executed.
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Use SRec, a recursion visualization tool, in your introductory Java courses to help students conceptualize the recursive algorithms they write.
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Have students create a game of Tetris in Java to work on object-oriented programming and decomposing complex programs.
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Have students write many small, simple classes in Java to scaffold their learning of the basics of object-oriented programming.
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Have students create a Burrito class in Java to practice object-oriented programming using an object they are familiar with.
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Have students write a program that constructs an n x n Magic Square in Java so they gain practice working with bounds in 2D arrays.
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Have students translate between Java Array and ArrayList to highlight the differences between the two.
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Misconception: When students use the division operator during declaration or assignment of a Double in Java, like double x = a/b, they forget about integer division, which can result in rounding errors.
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Misconception: Students confuse static and final variables in Java.
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Write an exception inside of a loop, then outside of a loop when live-coding so that students learn the effects of placement on exceptions.
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Misconception: Students have trouble understanding the difference between checked and unchecked exceptions in Java.
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Misconception: Students have trouble distinguishing between instance variables and parameters in Java.
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Use dice to introduce instantiable classes in Java because it’s easier for novice students to create classes based on a familiar object.
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Demonstrate manipulating primitives with operators before manipulating them with methods so students can understand the basics of primitives before using them in a more complicated way.
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Misconception: Students who first learn object-oriented programming in Python don’t realize they need to explicitly define instance variables in Java because this is done implicitly in Python.
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Misconception: Students get confused with object-oriented programming in Python because function declarations explicitly take self as an argument, but function calls don’t use self as argument.
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Give students tips and resources to help them shift from one programming language to another.
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Encourage students to replace variables with values when tracing through code to reduce the necessary cognitive load.
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Discuss and explore the difference between additive (sequential) and multiplicative (nested) loop structures to give students practice reasoning about loops.
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