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Good comments, thanks! I take on "new" on day 2, when I cover variables. And static gets revisited several times. I have to be brief with the first class, the

by saundby 16y ago

Good comments, thanks! I take on "new" on day 2, when I cover variables. And static gets revisited several times. I have to be brief with the first class, the main point is that it serves a function, it's not just noise. When we build a class that we use from another class (third or fourth lesson) we use a class method initially, then a non-static method, and get a chance to see the differences in action. This sets us up for static fields in the following class. Then we talk about how static members relate to classes vs. instantiated objects. Often someone's already encountered the reference from static context problem, so that comes up as an example in the discussion. Later we go back and look at Hello, World with "new eyes." At these students' ages a lot of the learning needs to be experience rather than theory.

Jach 16y ago
That sounds a lot better. :) > At these students' ages a lot of the learning needs to be experience rather than theory. I think that's true for programming in general regardless of age, unless the person's a genius. I watched a lecture on Skip Lists and totally understood the high-level view, but when it came to implementation it was more challenging than I thought. I likely would have slept through most of my digital electronics course if I didn't know we were doing labs leading to a 4-bit CPU.