Teaching UML Modeling Before Programming at the High School Level

This paper describes experience teaching modeling at the high school level prior to teaching programming and embedded control. An implementation- independent form of UML modeling is being used to teach students to analyze various applications, systems and problem domains. The objective is to introduce the abstract thinking processes involved in modeling before introducing the more concrete thought processes involved in programming with frequently used textual imperative programming languages. The author reports on experience teaching abstraction and UML modeling to a class of 12th graders.