Advanced Students & Projects

Many advanced students struggle with projects for a couple of reasons:

  • They struggle with open-ended projects. There is no right or wrong answer and they can’t rely on worksheets or instructions to complete the project.

  • They have a tendency to over-complicate their projects.

  • Working in groups is challenging.

Things we can do to help them with this:

  1. Provide examples for them to see.
  2. Guide the topics that they have to choose from so that it helps them narrow their focus.
  3. Connect them with “experts” within your community to get feedback on their project.
6 Likes

I often find that all students, including advanced students need help to structure the stages of their projects.
Dividing the work into specific timeframes with particular deliverables is helpful. Also, providing ongoing, specific feedback through a workshop model or peer review model helps students evaluate their progress and work.

1 Like

This is such a big thing that I try and work on getting the students to overcome. They are so used to being told what to do.
Giving them a structure and space to brainstorm is important.

1 Like

I agree completely. I also think they need a lot of validation of their ideas. I don’t always love giving examples because their work tends to simply reproduce the example. I’ve never figured out how to help my more advanced students to learn to struggle.

Great suggestion. I’m thinking it could be worthwhile to take a few photos to create a slideshow/movie/presentation to use in future classes - even better if student created!

Nashville, TN CS Discoveries group
Jenny