Emphasize the importance of documentation when working with spreadsheets or any programming language for future reference.
Have students design a program in Python that performs various sound-processing tasks to give them a fun way to practice using variables, assignments, if-statements, and functions.
Have students use Python’s Turtle graphics to draw fractals using a Lindenmayer system, instead of recursion, to give students experience with string manipulation.
Have students create a Python program that implements an automated authorship detection algorithm, which gives them an opportunity to practice working with strings, lists, and loops.
Use Droplet, a blocks-based text editor, to help bridge students’ learning gap between blocks and text.
Have students develop a geographic visualization of Twitter data across America in Python to give them experience using dictionaries, lists, and data abstraction techniques.
Have students design a simple game using classes in Python so they realize that even beginners are capable of writing interesting programs.
Use the Online Python Tutor tool to trace through code and help students visualize what the code is doing.
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.
Use Python’s map function to introduce students to loops early on, because the map function is an provides an easy transition to loops.