Create hands-on, meaningful, and relevant projects where students produce artifacts that require rigorous CS content-knowledge and software engineering skills.
Ensure a meaningful introductory CS learning experience for each student by creating differentiated expansions for assignments while providing the same starting points.
Encourage students to identify their unique skills and perspectives explicitly, especially when working on projects, to build confidence in their ability to make meaningful contributions.
Have students create a digital story in Scratch about an interesting scientific phenomenon as a final project to teach them both computer programming and science literacy.
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.
Introduce students to App Inventor by starting with buttons, images, labels, and text boxes because they tend to find these basic tools intuitive and easy to use.
Have students brainstorm project ideas in class to ensure that every student has a feasible project to pursue.
Scaffold students creativity by providing brainstorming prompts the day before a project is assigned so students can share more developed project ideas the next day in class.