Kinesthetic
It can often be useful to have the students get up and act out various learning objectives. The current understanding is that these activities are good for introduction and outreach, not so good for instruction and advanced learning.
Articles
- Teahcing CS Unplugged in High School (with limited success) by Yvon Feaster, Luke Segars, Sally K. Wahba, and Jason O. Hallstrom. An experience report suggesting CS Unplugged might not be a curriculum.
- Reflections on Outreach Programs in CS Classes: Learning Objectives for “Unplugged” Activities by Renate Thies and Jan Vahrenhold. I couldn't find an open version of the article. It's an educational theory look at CS Unplugged suggesting why Feaster et al might have had difficulty using it as a curriculum.
External Resources
- KLA (Kinesthetic Learning Activities)
- CS Unplugged
- 2008 AP Reading Toy Night
- 2010–2012 AP Reading Toy Nights
Other activities
Recursion
Have students act out being an activation record in a recursive method call. Have them follow the following outline:
When given a number,
Stand up
If the number ≤ 1
Return 1
Otherwise
Give someone sitting number – 1
Give someone sitting number – 2
Return the sum of the results
Sit down
It can also work to write this in the syntax of the language you are teaching.
page revision: 2, last edited: 25 Jul 2012 14:16