Use slide puzzles to help students understand how packets get reassembled when they reach their destination because students need help creating a mental model and are often are amazed and confused by this process.
Have students act out packet routing to learn about how information moves through the Internet in a way that is easy for them to understand and visualize.
Force students to explore inheritance and the Java APIs for ArrayList by writing code that HAS-A ArrayList or IS-A ArrayList.
Walk students through clicking on links in Java Docs to figure out unknown words and concepts (like iterable) by exploring the detailed explanation; plus the AP test expects students to read Java Docs online.
Have students act out diagrams they create of the stack and heap to extend this common drawing exercise and help them strengthen their mental models.
Explain that Strings in Java are a weird-hybrid between a primitive and an Object and as a result they can’t be modified.
Use Clock as an example of an abstract class because ALL clocks have the same mechanism for keeping time, a necessary property for an Abstract Class, to provide students with a strong real-world mental model for abstract classes.
Use Car as an example of an interface because students agree on the general behaviors of a car but can only come up with specific instantiations of cars, which provides students with a strong mental model for interface relationships.