Misconception: Students don’t understand that the right side of an assignment statement is executed before the assignment. They think that variables store unresolved equations.
Have students analyze the effects of changing pieces of a loop to improve their understanding of loop structure.
Misconception: Students think that a “repeat 1” block in Scratch will execute the relevant script twice, where the script executes once and then repeats once.
Encourage students to be careful when using sound blocks in Scratch that don’t have durations, as these blocks start sounds immediately rather than waiting until the first sound is done.
Have students create polygons in Scratch to help them practice debugging and reasoning about geometry.
Remind students to spend lots of time carefully reading the free-response questions on the AP CS A exam to prepare them for this portion of the exam.
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.
Have students create a Burrito class in Java to practice object-oriented programming using an object they are familiar with.
Have students write many small, simple classes in Java to scaffold their learning of the basics of object-oriented programming.