Motivate for-loops by having students informally describe how to draw a set of 5 shapes, then having them turn this description into pseudocode to practice for-loops.
Show students many examples of computer science to help them see that computer science isn’t just about programming.
Model parabolic motion in Scratch to show students (and teachers) that Scratch can handle engaging, complex problems because it is a real programming languages.
Use the Beauty and Joy of Computing’s kaleidoscope assignment to integrate Art into CS so that students get excited about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).
Show a storyboarding video clip from Pixar’s Toy Story to show students that storyboarding is a real world activity and that storyboarding is vital in some careers.
Use Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery as a source for current CS news to help students understand the cultural importance of the field.
Ask students if the games they are designing are games they’d want to buy to keep students making progress toward your learning goals for them.
Tell students that the data structure linked lists were used for the human genome sequencing project to motivate the value of this structure and increase interest.