Questions tagged [labs]
For questions about labs. Labs are hands-on full class period activities where students are given an objective that they have to reach and the tools to reach it. Lab work can extend beyond the lab and become homework.
35
votes
15answers
13k views
How to help students avoid being distracted by bells and whistles
I teach Windows Forms programming, and now ASP.Net (essentially the same thing, except you view it in a browser) and I am dismayed that students seem to spend an enormous amount of time straining at ...
28
votes
11answers
8k views
How to stop being The Oracle
When I did customer service for an application I was developing, I found that most of the time, if I did NOT answer the phone, the user would figure out their problem and learn more than if I did ...
19
votes
10answers
1k views
Cheating on labs
It is spectacularly easy to cheat on CS labs at the high school level and above (roughly ages 14 and up), particularly on short, early assignments. In fact, there is article in today's NY Times about ...
17
votes
12answers
2k views
Dealing with students who complete labs very quickly
One of my goals is to minimize homework. My high school students are high performing, grade conscious, and constantly stressed out as it is. Many of them fall into the "Ivy League or bust" camp, ...
8
votes
11answers
413 views
Objects Lab Before Inheritance and Polymorphism
I am finding it very difficult to create a lab for Objects in Java before we've involved Inheritance and Polymorphism. The problem, as I see it, is that Inheritance and Polymorphism are basically the ...
8
votes
6answers
419 views
Single-dimensional array and simple looping activities of significance
I give a lab on single-dimensional loops and arrays. By "single dimensional loops", I mean that there is no nesting of loops. (I will later give a second lab on multi-dimensional loops and arrays, ...
7
votes
4answers
243 views
How do you structure broad, open-ended, freely chosen projects so that students use class time wisely?
If we are to believe Daniel Pink, autonomy is one of the fundamental aspects of motivation, so integrating student choice is extremely valuable if I want my students to remain highly engaged.
I ...
7
votes
3answers
156 views
What are good sample programs for learning to use a debugger?
One skill I teach students in Java 1 is how to use a debugger, specifically:
single-stepping through code
using breakpoints
viewing the values of variables
going up and down the call stack
I have ...
6
votes
2answers
128 views
Review of Information Theory Lab
Background
This is mid-year in a course for HS juniors in theoretical computer science. The unit is about Information Theory. We were using the coin-weighing problem as something of a motivator for ...
6
votes
1answer
174 views
Lab ideas for information theory
This question is somewhat related to a prior question that I asked about an Information Theory lab. I received a lot of great feedback there, but I have not gotten past the idea yet that the lab that ...
5
votes
5answers
303 views
What is a good teaching example/application for jagged arrays (2d arrays with irregular row lengths)?
We are teaching an AP CS class and the topic of 2d-arrays is coming up. There are plenty of cool and approachable sample applications for standard rectanglular arrays - matrix math, MIDI music, sudoku,...
4
votes
5answers
240 views
How to best use lab periods
One of the major uses of my classroom time is for lab work. This is both a requirement of the AP Computer Science curriculum, and also nominally a benefit, as it allows me to walk around and answer ...
4
votes
1answer
131 views
A lab activity for the Y-Combinator
We are about to study the y-combinator as a culmination of lambda calculus, and I would like a shortish lab activity that is related to this idea. We are currently working in Scheme, though I don't ...
4
votes
4answers
63 views
What's a good unit testing assignment for Android?
I'm teaching a capstone (the final class in an undergraduate program) software engineering course in which we are developing Android applications in Java. I consider test-driven development and unit ...
4
votes
2answers
64 views
Lab ideas for set theory
The title of the question actually says almost everything there is to say. I cannot think of any programming labs whatsoever that would naturally flow from set theory.
My students will be coding in ...
4
votes
0answers
395 views
Using zyBooks and labs
Has anyone used zyBooks in their classes? I've seen some good comments on the SIGCSE list about them. I would primarily use this in our CS I class (Java) with their lab feature as a way to provide ...
3
votes
3answers
90 views
Integrating Graph Theory into AP CS A
During our year-end exit interviews with our outgoing seniors, the students made an explicit request to include some graph theory within our curriculum. This seems like an excellent idea, but the ...
3
votes
2answers
126 views
Lab Requirement in AP CS A
The official course description for AP Computer Science A, a high-school level course focusing on OOP using Java, details a 20-hour lab requirement. College Board provides three labs ready-made for ...
2
votes
1answer
95 views
What resources and data sets are available for teaching big data courses?
I currently utilize Cloudera’s QuickStart VM and for Talend’s Big Data Sandbox as part of my big data classes. These touch on frameworks, storage / data access options, data integration, data quality, ...
