# Stage 3 - How Do You Transition Students?

**URL:** https://forum.code.org/t/stage-3-how-do-you-transition-students/4490
**Category:** CS in Algebra
**Created:** [June 28, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/stage-3-how-do-you-transition-students/4490 "2016-06-28T17:38:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![gutive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@gutive](https://forum.code.org/u/gutive)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/stage-3-how-do-you-transition-students/4490/1 "2016-06-28T17:38:04Z")

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Think about the tricks and techniques that you use to help students transition from concrete arithmetic to abstract algebra.  
• What’s worked for you in the past?  
o Pneumonic devices and silly stories that help students remember something difficult.  
• What do your students find the most difficult?  
o Function notation, such as f(x) versus slope-intercept form y = mx + b.  
• How do you think programming can help with this transition?  
o Students will have to conceptually the end result of the programming, but may not actually be able to “see” it before they complete their programming.