Many educators provide introductory programming instruction that includes brief programs that seek to illuminate some aspect of programs or programming. We refer to these brief programs as “Great Examples.” In this tutorial, educators will share “Great Examples” from their classroom, discuss challenges students face that motivate specific “Great Examples”, and collaboratively draft heuristics for developing and evaluating new “Great Examples”. This builds upon Colleen Lewis’ co-development of fifty “Great Examples” for Java (https://tinyurl.com/3DJavaResources and available from https://www.csteachingtips.org/3D). This session will discuss “Great Examples” for learning goals from introductory programming in any language. The existing examples were co-developed with high-school teachers and they focus on using 3D models to address learning goals from an introductory Java course taught in high schools in the US (i.e., APCSA). The goal of the tutorial is for participants to take away (a) additional “Great Examples” they can use in their classroom, (b) plans for how they can use formative evaluation to improve their “Great Examples” and better understand students’ learning, (c) insights into the strengths and weaknesses of decontextualized examples, (d) additional knowledge of conceptual challenges in intro programming and common misconceptions, and (e) community with colleagues passionate about effective teaching!

Colleen Lewis is an Associate Professor of computer science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Lewis previously taught at Harvey Mudd College for eight years where she was the McGregor-Girand Associate Professor of computer science. At UC Berkeley, Lewis completed a PhD in science and mathematics education, an MS in computer science, and a BS in electrical engineering and computer science. Her research seeks to identify effective teaching practices for creating equitable learning spaces where all students have the opportunity to learn. Lewis curates CSTeachingTips.org, a NSF-sponsored project for disseminating effective computer science teaching practices. Lewis has received the NSF CAREER Award, the NCWIT.org Undergraduate Mentoring Award, and the AnitaB.org Emerging Leader Award for her efforts to broaden participation in computing.