Slide presentations
PDF presentations preserve each animation step so instructors can reveal information in the intended order.
Forge Discovery
Build the game.
Develop the thinking.
A connected sequence of discussions, investigations and programming exercises through which students develop the Discovery game.
Something substantial
to understand and build.
Students work with an existing Java project. They write selected parts of the implementation, examine a great deal of the supplied code in detail and become familiar with the responsibilities of other parts.
The aim is for students to see the whole game as something they understand, have contributed to and can continue to develop.
Along the way, they predict results, read documentation, develop algorithms, investigate mistakes and check their work against the requirements.
Prepared for another instructor to teach
Materials that work together.
Instructor guides
The course is organized into 12 phases, each with its own instructor guide. These guides explain the purpose of the activities and provide teaching directions, discussion questions, expected responses and help with common difficulties.
Student guides
Slide references and activity directions help students follow the work. An introductory student guide explains how to prepare and use the materials.
Two Java projects
The student project contains supplied code and selected TODO assignments. The separate completed instructor project provides the prepared implementation for comparison.
Demonstrations and exercises
Students observe behaviour, make predictions and investigate the available code before completing and verifying their assigned work.
Tools for creating materials
The Forge Publishing Tool captures PowerPoint animation steps and produces PDFs. Forge Document Links manages linked pictures in Word. Both come with user guides for use in instructors’ own courses.
Before beginning
Who is Forge for?
Students should already be able to write simple Java programs using variables, methods, decisions and loops. They also need to be comfortable using a development environment to edit and run their code. Forge builds on those skills.
Instructors should have a working knowledge of Java and be comfortable using their chosen development environment. They need to be able to work with the supplied projects, prepare and run the demonstrations and help students investigate questions or unexpected results.
The phases group related ideas. They are not equal-length lessons. Instructors can adjust the pace and discussion to their students’ understanding and their own teaching approach.
Read about the educational ideas behind ForgeCourse availability
Details will be published here.
The course is not currently available to purchase through this website.