Blogs (19) >>
Sat 18 Mar 2023 08:30 - 08:42 at 718A - Nifty Assignments Chair(s): Nick Parlante, Dave Reed, Julie Zelenski

This nifty assignment challenges CS 2 students to implement the backend for a variation on the Hex board game. In a typical Hex game the winner is the player connecting a continuous series of their playing pieces from a specific side of the board to the other. In this variation, we add the concept of a score, which is the number of connected components of a given color. The students are provided with the front end of the game, various board sizes, unit-tests and a game simulator. They are tasked with keeping track of the state of the game. The assignment is nifty because students are interested in the game aspect and there are a number of possible solutions for the disjoint set tracking required in the backend. This leads to engaging in-class discussions that are elevated above coding specific details and focused on design and performance leading to strong learning opportunities. The unit-tests provide debugging and software development skills for students and automatic grading of some functional aspects of the work. Students could easily be tasked with creating their own unit-tests in a variant on this original. In the end students end up with a working game that is fun to play and interesting to thinking about algorithmically.

Sat 18 Mar

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

08:30 - 09:45
Nifty AssignmentsNifty Assignments at 718A
Chair(s): Nick Parlante Stanford University, Dave Reed Creighton University, Julie Zelenski Stanford University
08:30
12m
Talk
Islands of HexHybridK12Global
Nifty Assignments
Andrew Godbout University of Prince Edward Island
DOI
08:42
12m
Talk
Mozart Musical Dice GameHybridK12
Nifty Assignments
Kevin Wayne Princeton University
DOI
08:55
12m
Talk
Nifty Assignments: Enigma Machine SimulatorHybridK12
Nifty Assignments
Eric Roberts Willamette University, Jed Rembold Willamette University
DOI
09:07
12m
Talk
Nifty Assignments - Optical Illusions Using Loops and Nested LoopsHybridK12
Nifty Assignments
Faan Tone Liu University of Denver
DOI
09:20
12m
Talk
Project: Fatal Police ShootingsHybridK12
Nifty Assignments
Melissa Lynn Gustavus Adolphus College
DOI
09:32
12m
Talk
Rising Tides: A Literal Flood-FillHybridK12
Nifty Assignments
Keith Schwarz Stanford University
DOI