Kick-Start Activation to Novice Programming — A Visualization-Based Approach

In the beginning of learning programming students have misconceptions of what programming is. We have used a kick-start activation in the beginning of an introductory programming course (CS1) to set the record straight. A kick-start activation means introducing the deep structure of programming before the surface structure by making the students solve a certain type of problem in the first lecture. The problem is related to a realistic computer program, simple enough for everyone to understand and allow students to participate in debugging. A visualization-based approach helps making the example more concrete for students.In this article we present the concept kick-start activation and one concrete example. To support the example, we have also developed a visualization using the visualization tool JHAVÉ. We got positive feedback on the example and suggest further development of kick-start activations in order to make the beginning of learning programming more motivating for students.