Clarify the curriculum entry point and Java prerequisites - #19
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The overview led with "No programming experience? Start here", which implies there is a different entry point for people who do have experience. There isn't - everyone does Setup then the Challenges, because the robot concepts are new regardless of Java background. The opening now says that outright, and splits only the Java reading by experience level: read Java Basics and the Java track if you are new, skim Java Basics and skip the track if you already know Java. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The overview claimed the curriculum "assumes you know nothing about programming and teaches you everything step by step". It does not - it teaches robot programming and expects you to already read variables, conditionals, methods and classes. New "Do I know enough Java?" section states that expectation as a concrete list, then points beginners at CodeHS AP CS A (the on-ramp chosen in the curriculum plan: free, in-browser, autograded) with the Helsinki Java MOOC as an alternative. Also notes the language work runs alongside the early challenges rather than blocking them, with classes and objects as the one hard prerequisite before the collector challenge. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Two related fixes to how the curriculum overview greets a new student.
1. Everyone starts at the top
It opened with "No programming experience? Start here", which reads as though experienced people have a different entry point. They don't — everyone does Setup then the Challenges, because the robot concepts (subsystems, commands, the scheduler, PID) are new whether or not you know Java.
2. The curriculum assumes basic Java — say so, and help people who don't have it
The old text also claimed the curriculum "assumes you know nothing about programming and teaches you everything step by step." It doesn't. It teaches robot programming and expects you to arrive able to read Java. A beginner trusting that sentence would hit Tank Drive and be stuck for reasons the page told them not to expect.
New "Do I know enough Java?" section states the bar concretely:
…then points anyone missing it at two free resources:
These are the on-ramps already chosen in the curriculum planning work (CodeHS primary, Helsinki MOOC as validated fallback), so this just surfaces that decision to students. Both URLs verified live.
It also sets expectations about sequencing: the early challenges need very little Java, so the language work runs alongside them rather than blocking them — with classes and objects called out as the one thing to have solid before the Auto-stopping Collector challenge, where students first write a class of their own.
Verification
pnpm docs:buildpasses. All four in-page anchors (#setup,#challenges,#java-track,#do-i-know-enough-java) resolve in the rendered HTML, and the inaccurate "assumes you know nothing" claim no longer appears anywhere in the file.🤖 Generated with Claude Code