Using the debugger as an integral part of teaching CS1

Traditionally, using a debugger has had the connotation of finding and removing defects. In this paper and presentation, we explore the use of a modern integrated debugger as a program understanding tool for novice programming students in CS1. With the move to Java in the first course, instructors and students are faced with either ignoring the details of object-oriented concept or with explaining the concepts in a way that novices can understand. We show how the debugger can be used to depict the initial construction of an object, the object's inherited members, and polymorphic calls to the object's methods. Although each of these concepts can be difficult for beginning programmers, using the debugger to explicitly illustrate these concepts provides students with an opportunity for a much deeper understanding of their programs.