Teaching our students to debug their own projects is an essential part of learning to code, but it can be difficult to do! I can definitely remember classes when 4 or 5 groups needed help figuring out what went wrong in their robotics projects at the same time, and running around trying to get them all on the right track without giving them the answer!
This workshop was designed around concepts from Debugging by Design. Rather than viewing bugs as nuisances, we can reframe them as powerful learning tools for our students. Presenting students with projects that contain deliberate bugs for them to find and solve can help build their understanding of CS concepts, as well as their agency as problem solvers.
We put those practices into action in the workshop as we looked together as a group at several bugged VEXcode IQ projects. Participants read the code, and worked in groups to determine what the bug was and how it might be fixed.
After that, groups debugged a project independently, then created their own bug-filled projects. They shared them with the VEX software team to see if they could stump the experts.
Here are the slides from the workshop, complete with all the bugged projects, which you are welcome to use with your own students.
Structured Debugging Strategies with VEX IQ.pdf (3.0 MB)
I loved how each of the bugged projects inspired intense conversation within and among groups, and how groups came up with their own unique ways to solve each bug.
Similar workshops were presented for GO, AIM, EXP and V5 - check out the posts for those workshops to access the associated slides!
Happy Debugging!
