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Incorporating Visual Logic Into a Java Course

Incorporating Visual Logic Into a Java Course . Katherine H. Winters University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). Outline. Description of UTC Why What How Lessons learned Results . University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Part of the University of Tennessee system

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Incorporating Visual Logic Into a Java Course

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  1. Incorporating Visual Logic Into a Java Course Katherine H. Winters University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)

  2. Outline • Description of UTC • Why • What • How • Lessons learned • Results

  3. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • Part of the University of Tennessee system • Have between 9,000 and 10,000 students • Students have a wide background • Students come with a broad skill set • Undergraduate and Masters program • Department of Computer Science and Engineering • Located in the school of Engineering and Computer Science

  4. How are Your Student Doing • Do your students come to you ready to take a problem statement and turn it into a Java program? • Do you struggle with teaching the syntax of the Java language while teaching problem solving? • Do your students come equipped to develop Java programs with no problems? • Is your pass rate for CS1 high?

  5. Why?

  6. I want to be a computer science major because I love to play video games

  7. How About This? • What is a problem statement? • I don’t know where to start. • Where do I turn on the computer? • I hate math word problems.

  8. I Am Good at Repairing Computers

  9. What To Do

  10. Curriculum Considerations • No beginning algorithm class • Java is first programming course • Requirement for all other Computer Science (CS) courses • Few if any CS taught in Tennessee • No room for algorithm class • TN caps our hours @ 120 • TN has no teaching certification in CS

  11. Marriage • Use Visual Logic and Java text for first programming course • What is Visual Logic • Flowchart tools • Background is Visual Basic • Design flowchart • Run Program • Text • A Guide to Working with Visual Logic • Thad Crews and Chip Murphy

  12. How?

  13. How Does It Work? • I begin with Visual Logic • Which do you think the students can grasp better public class Hello { public static void main(String args) { System.out.println("Hello"); } } or

  14. How Does It Work? • In Visual Logic • Work through input, processes, and output • Move to decision making • Move to loops • Go to Java • Work through same material extend concepts • Many times I use the same exercises and labs and extend the concepts with additional Java labs • As we go introduce the new concepts such as OO • Get to arrays • Introduce the concept with VL and then in Java • Extend the concept with Array Lists

  15. Lessons Learned

  16. Lessons Leaned • Don’t try to initially mix Visual Logic and Java • Start with Visual Logic and Introduce Concepts • Move to Java – extend the concepts • Can then mix the two

  17. Results

  18. Based on my classes only.

  19. Kathy Winters University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (423) 425-4378 Kathy-Winters@utc.edu

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