Assign students to draw a dodecagon in Scratch before introducing repeat blocks so that once you introduce the repeat block, it is clear that it is a time-saving block.

  • The repetitive nature of this task creates a pain point to motivate the need for repeat blocks.
    • Use student complaints about the task to begin your introduction of the repeat block.
    • This pain point will demonstrate the usefulness of the repeat block and increase students’ learning and retention as students are more likely to remember a concept when it solves their problems.
  • Use this same strategy to motivate functions, classes, etc. When you use this strategy, a new concept becomes useful to the student rather than just another thing they have to learn.

More about this tip

External Source
Sean Stern and Stephen Lewis from the CSNYC Tip-A-Thon.