
Ask HN: (CS Lecturers) How do you make class interesting? - abhisuri97
Right now, Im an undergrad teaching JS but I&#x27;ve noticed myself that my lectures tend to be a bit one-sided. But when I attempt to spice it up by asking questions to the class, I get cricket-chirps and painful awkward silence. What tips do you all have?
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DataJunkie
I tie the concepts back to stuff I've done in industry and try to assign
homework and projects that teach skills relevant to new technologies or stuff
they may do at work. I tend to use "interview questions" to the class and that
tends to generate discussion. While I stick to the expected curriculum, I
prioritize content to stuff that is likely to be used again. Students
appreciate this.

On a more superficial level, I put memes in slides.

This was for a databases class. Very important nowadays, but known to be one
of the more boring classes.

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HiroshiSan
Unfortunately this is the reality of undergrad. Most kids are scrolling
facebook, the others are extremely shy and afraid of saying something stupid.

I'd say the biggest hurdle to get over is showing the students that it's okay
to speak up and get the answer wrong, it's ok to say something silly without
penalty.

All the lecturers I've seen who made the classroom engaging would simply not
move forward until someone has answered the question. Eventually you get the
situation where 1 - 3 people regularly answer the questions just to get the
class going. In this case the approach professors would take is to then ask
sections of the room where no one has answered.

Thank you for wanting to make your classroom engaging I hope this helps!

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Jugurtha
Please take a look at the work Greg Wilson did on the matter. There's a book
entitled " _How to Teach Programming (And Other Things)_ [0]", and a second
book entitled " _Teaching Tech Together_ [1]"

[0]: [http://third-bit.com/2017/05/31/how-to-teach-
programming.htm...](http://third-bit.com/2017/05/31/how-to-teach-
programming.html)

[1]: [http://teachtogether.tech/en/](http://teachtogether.tech/en/)

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ahoka
You could try doing some "ice breaker" games if the size of the class allows
it. Maybe your students are just to shy to speak up. These are usually short
sessions gently forcing people to say something loudly at the beggining of the
lecture. Good luck!

