Abstract

We have recently designed a CS 1 course that integrates event-driven programming from the very start. Our experience teaching this course runs counter to the prevailing sense that these techniques would add complexity to the content of CS 1. Instead, we found that they were simple to present and that they also simplified the presentation of other material in the course. In this paper, we explain the approach we used to introduce event-driven methods and discuss the factors underlying our success. 1 Introduction We recently implemented a major update of our CS 1 course. The new version of the course is based on Java (replacing Pascal), takes an objects-first approach, uses labs incorporating graphics, and introduces event-driven programming techniques including threads quite early in the course. Our decision to introduce our students to GUI programming and to use event-driven techniques was influenced by two arguments. The first, expressed by Culwin and others [2, 8, 10], is that "ou...

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