[Bluej-discuss] Programming as random process ...

[Todd O'Bryan]

I hesitate to suggest this on a BlueJ list, but I've had a great deal  
of success with the TeachScheme! materials designed by Matthias  
Felleisen and his former students.

Obviously, this is a functional-first approach, but it has the  
advantage that it starts students thinking about what they have to  
work with and the relationship between the structure of data and the  
structure of code. If you'd like to check out the materials, software  
and other stuff is at

http://www.teach-scheme.org

and the textbook (published by MIT Press) is available online at

http://www.htdp.org

The approach has gotten a little more focused since the book was  
written, and there's a 2nd edition in preparation. As a result of  
these materials, I have some average 10th graders designing  
structures, writing recursive functions to manipulate binary search  
trees, and even handling mutual recursion in a model of files and  
directories, where directories can contain files and other  
directories. It's pretty impressive, and the whole point of the  
approach is to give students a recipe to follow as they develop  
functions.

Feel free to ask if you want to know more,
Todd

P.S. I use this material in my 10th grade course, and switch to Java  
and Objects First with my 11th graders.