I started by pointing out that in the first two assignments we will be reviewing arrays and classes. It would be especially helpful to review chapters 7 (arrays) and 8 (classes) of the textbook as we work through this material.
I asked people why they thought that cassette tapes so quickly replaced reel-to-reel technology in the last 1960's. People had many answers. I argued that cassettes won because they took an inconvenient collection of stuff (tape, reels, etc) and turned it into an "it", a "thing", an "object". Several students gave this answer as well talking about cassettes as "more convenient", and "self contained." I said that this is a good analogy for understanding what Java classes get us. A Java class is a way of packaging a set of variables along with some code into a self-contained, encapsulated, convenient object.