Conference Agenda

Introductory programming students routinely struggle with the “invisible” aspects of modular programs: where values come from, how they move between functions, and what it means to “return” a result. Amp Stack is a lightweight, visual methodology that makes data flow and modular structure explicit by having students design programs as top-to-bottom stacks of “amps” (Input, Compute, and Output blocks) wired together by named ports before they write any code. In this 3-hour, hands-on workshop, participants will experience Amp Stack from the student point of view, translate diagrams into runnable Python, and then step back to examine how the approach scaffolds CS1 concepts such as IPO structure, parameter passing, and modular decomposition. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use classroom materials (worksheets, sample exercises, and rubrics) and a plan for integrating Amp Stack into their own introductory courses with minimal disruption to existing syllabi.