Look to Incorporate AP CSA Labs as a Break from Instruction

Look to Incorporate AP CSA Labs as a Break from Instruction

Tricks of the Trade for AP CSA Labs

At this point in the school year, students should have enough content knowledge to get them started on some of the College Board labs. Labs such as Magpie and Consumer Review can be completed after the end of Unit 4 in both Nitro and Mocha, which can be a good check for understanding to see how students are progressing, and provide a well deserved break from teaching new content!

Both labs can be accessed in the supplemental material of Mocha and Nitro, or in the CodeHS CS A Labs Course.

If you are still a few weeks away from being able to incorporate a lab into your class, consider taking one of the exercises from the course and turning it into a practice free response. Pick an exercise towards the end of a lesson, and provide students the instructions for that exercise on a whiteboard or projector. Give students an allotted amount of time to complete the exercise by hand, and collect the results. You can compare student solutions to the solution guides on the site, or have students grade one another’s code. If you are a Pro user, you can even lock the exercise so students can’t take a look at the exercise before the assessment.