Last week I introduced the super keyword in my AP Computer Science class. Actually, it came up in the book a few weeks back, but it suddenly became relevant because it appeared on a quiz. And naturally in class someone asked if you could use super.super to get to the grandparent. Instead of answering, I [...]
Archive for the ‘Programming’ Category
18 Oct
Beyond Programming
I’m really happy with my Introduction to Programming class this year because I feel like I’m finally finding a balance between specific technical concepts and broader design ideas. Not only is this important for keeping the class interesting, but it’s also how I actually want to do my work. The goal is not to turn [...]
28 Sep
Encapsulation
Because it amuses me so, here is another set of student answers. This time the responses come from my AP Computer Science class and the question was: “What does encapsulation mean? (In your own words, please.)” These are my top five favorites so far.
Encapsulation is like a shield, it protects the data from being changed [...]
22 Sep
Modulo Understanding
On Monday, a bit tired and underprepared, I spontaneously decided to give a brief explanation of the mod operator to my Intro to Programming class. Then at the end of the hour, I had them write down their understanding of it for me. In the business, we call these quick check-in activities “formative assessments” but [...]
4 Sep
Multiple Languages
The idea of teaching multiple languages early in the sequence of computer science in order to help students gain a deeper understanding of what we are actually doing when we’re programming a computer keeps coming back to me. The advantage of a second (and third) language is that expressing the same computation in each allows [...]
Recent Comments