How to: Teach java?

[AndyB871]

Ive been poking around the boards for a while trying to figure out where to place this post. I noticed there was a curriculum board, but was worried it didn't get enough attention so in the end I decided on here;

Anyway,

I'm at a bit of a dillemma this year. I'm the head coach and software mentor for my team 871, and my team has vehemently requested to switch languages. Traditionally we used labview because of our very very high student turnover rate and over the years I've developed a whole set of lessons and a plan I work through each year with the kids.

Well, now they want to try out Java.

I personally think it's great my students are ready to take the next step, and I myself am very experienced with Java. My problem is that I don't really know where to start with my lessons. I wanted to take a broader approach and teach about more general Software Engineering principles before I dove into Java and OOP. I felt like having that base knowledge of design concepts would help them more quickly grasp Java and what it's capable of.

I've been browsing the internet and reading whitepaper on learning and teaching, how to teach programming, etc. etc. but I still haven't found a decent place to start. That being said, do any of you mentors out there have some advice on where I should start? Do you have a learning plan that you work through? How do you handle students with radically disparate capablities?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much,

-Andy
Team 871

[mail929]

Team 111 uses the MIT OpenCourseWare for Java. We find it pretty effective and well paced to teach incoming software students. We have a meeting every week before build season where lessons are taught and then an assignment is usually given to be turned in the next week. If you want to look at something more robot specific we open source our code every year sometime after champs as well as some other teams like 254.

Good Luck!

[AndyB871]

I've looked through your source before, along with some others, to get a feel for the WPI libraries and it's been very helpful, but that's all because I _already_ have the basis of understanding. Teaching is hard (as I've learned since I took over this team)!

I'm facepalming a bit that I didn't think to check out the MIT stuff. Thanks for the pointer!

[mail929]

No problem. If you have any questions at all feel free to contact the team.

[Spoam]

If you want something simpler for new students our 2014 robot code is very minimalist (no feedback loops or fancy objects) while still containing most of what you'd find in typical FRC code.

We typically have a generic skid-steer drivebase on hand for new programmers to work with after giving them a crash course on the control system and introducing them to C syntax and OOP (we start out by teaching them about variables, loops, scope etc. then give them challenges they must complete on their own like sorting an arbitrary array). When they're competent at programming we teach them WPI lib, and when they can make a simple robot run we have them start deriving drivebase kinematics and learning control loops on their own with a little bit of guidance and oversight. We also have 0 programming mentors on our team, so this is all done by student captains.

Our robot code this year was written entirely by sophomores on the team who were completely new to programming last year and has had PID-corrected strafe, field centric and robot centric holonomic drive code (from when our robot had slide drjve lol), a position and velocity PI controller for our elevator and more all designed by them.

[AndyB871]

@Spoam, that's more or less what I've done with LabView for the students. Do you have a set of challenges that you cycle through or are they typically new each year? Some examples?

This feedback is great BTW, thanks so much! I won't feel so underprepared this Thursday's session!

[GeeTwo]

Team 3946 has some java lessons and tutorials written by Gixxy, our founder. We also use Java for Dummies, and of course, the screenstepslive wpilib getting started and java tutorials.

[Spoam]

Originally Posted by AndyB871

@Spoam, that's more or less what I've done with LabView for the students. Do you have a set of challenges that you cycle through or are they typically new each year? Some examples?

This feedback is great BTW, thanks so much! I won't feel so underprepared this Thursday's session!

Sorting an array is one of our favorites because it's simple, but can be challenging because it requires someone to truly think like a programmer and translate a problem that's trivial for humans into something a computer can execute.

In a similar vein, we used a lot of (the simpler) project euler problems to get them into critical thinking and problem solving with code.

Along the way there would also be small challenges relevant to what we just taught them (like classes, file access, functions etc). Eventually we just tell them "write code so that this drivebase can move in all directions from joystick input" or "research x and y and implement it". If they get stuck, we give them guidance. Captains are always present for troubleshooting and tuning and review code before putting it on the robot (both to verify it will work, and to make sure it meets our standards).

[Fusion_Clint]

Try this, FTC is going to JAVA next year and FIRST hired Intelitek to design a curriculum for the change. It is supposed to have 4-5 hours on the MIT app and another 5-7 hours on straight JAVA. Won't be available until September.

http://www.intelitek.com/pdf/FTC_Brochure_Final.pdf

[gblake]

This one is OK, but it doesn't contain anything about FIRST Robots.
Oracle's Tutorial

[David Lame]

If you are dealing with students who have absolutely no conventional programming experience, my advice on teaching Java is to download Visual Studio Express, and teach them C# for a few weeks. The languages are practically identical at the beginning level.

The advantage of Visual Studio/C# over Eclipse/Java is that the development environment is much easier to deal with. It's easy to set up Eclipse wrong and end up with something that doesn't work at all, with the problem being some obscure checkbox behind the scenes that no one would know to look for. Also, Intellisense on C# works better than its equivalent in Java. Finally, the easiest programs to work with for object oriented programming concepts are ones with a user interface, and Windows Forms programs are very, very, easy to write. Once they get variables, functions, classes and objects down, it will be fairly easy to transition over to Java and the FRC environment. Sure, they'll have to start typing String instead of string, but that's an easy transition.

Of course, I'm a Microsoft partisan myself. Programmers are notoriously religious about their favorite tools and languages, so a lot of people will think this is absolutely terrible advice. However, in the little bit of teaching I have done to absolute beginners, I've just found C# easier to deal with.

[levydev]

1) Get familiar with java basics - syntax, variables defs , arrays, control loops. Run simple examples from the command line using a single Class with a main method.

2) Get a taste of Object Oriented Programming with Java. I think just a small introduction to understand Classes, Class instances, methods. Go back to the exercises in #1 and try to spread you code across multiple Classes ( One class definition per .java file should be sufficient)

After you've completed the above steps, you should have enough Java under your belt and may be ready to move on beyond the command line.

For FRC Teams this may be the next step.

https://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/4485/m/13809

[Aero]

Originally Posted by David Lame

The languages are practically identical at the beginning level.

If you teach them one language for a few weeks than switch over, the differences are just going to confuse them more.

If you're teaching them Java, teach it from the beginning.
If Eclipse being complicated is a worry, I'd recommend IntelliJ IDEA as an IDE - they'll be happy to give your FRC team a free copy of the Ultimate edition if you email them.

For people with absolutely no programming experience, it's going to be hard to teach them pure Java and expect them to pick up on WPIlib easily. You can teach WPIlib from the start, but don't expect them to grasp the language's syntax quickly.
I taught a group of rookies Python over a few months. What I found worked best was getting them through basic syntax, then giving them challenges that required independent research to solve. I find teaching programming works better the more self-directed you can make your class.

[levydev]

Here is an interesting online tutorial that lets you write and execute basic code in the browser: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/index.htm. As you read through you'll see some sample code and a "try it" button. While in "try it" mode , you are able to change the code.

This may be a good way for someone to get started without being overwhelmed by the JDK and IDE installation. Although that would eventually be needed.

[mathking]

For an introduction to Java that kids can really dive into, try Robocode. I use it to introduce kids who don't have any programming experience to the basics of Java in the summer before they start my AP Comp Sci class. I am also happy to share some other lesson ideas if you would like. Send me a message.