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