Teach students the Total Turn Theorem to help them reason about drawing regular, closed polygons in Scratch.
Misconception: Students think that “turn” blocks in Scratch imply a change in position within the coordinate plane.
Start teaching Scratch with blocks that run for a set amount of time to avoid the common misconception that blocks are executed simultaneously.
Tell young students that computer programming is simply writing rules for a computer to follow, similar to bossing around a younger sibling, to help them connect programming to everyday life.
Create a handout that translates code in Scratch to code in Logo in order to show students that they are capable of writing text-based code because they already program in Scratch.
Create a physical model of Java objects and references in order to demonstrate situations where multiple references point to the same object in a way that’s easier for students to comprehend.
Use Dixie cups with numbers written on the bottom to demonstrate sorting arrays and heap operations in a tangible, physical way.
Emphasize that Scratch is REAL coding; this lets students know that programming in educational languages like Scratch or Python is valuable even though these languages aren’t commonly used in industry.
Put debugging tips inside the test cases when you provide students with JUnit test cases to help students improve their own debugging abilities in Java.
Use sounds in Scratch to make it clear when particular lines of code are being executed because it can be really hard for students to figure out the order of execution.