Supplemental Material for Baldwin and Scragg, Algorithms and Data Structures: The Science of Computing; Charles River Media, 2004 (Now published by Cengage Learning)
These notes discuss the authors’ view of the laboratory exercise entitled “Review of Java.”
This is a good lab exercise to use very early in a course. We typically use it when the schedule of a semester is such that a laboratory session falls before students can realistically be expected to have absorbed any of Algorithms and Data Structures: The Science of Computing (e.g., when the first laboratory session is before the first lecture).
This lab is primarily a chance to gauge how well students understand Java at the beginning of a course. While certainly not a comprehensive Java test, the graduated series of exercises should indicate roughly how proficient a student is:
When using this lab to gauge students’ Java proficiency, we emphasize that the lab is not a test. In particular, we grade the lab based on how honestly it appears that a student has let it show their ability, not on how many of the exercises they solve, and we judge a class’s overall ability as much from the questions students ask during the laboratory session as from the final programs they produce. Some instructors may choose not to grade this lab at all. Measures such as these avoid unfairly stressing students at the beginning of a course, and eliminate incentives for students to copy solutions from others, something that can be hard to control in a laboratory environment.
Copyright © 2004 Charles River Media. All rights reserved.
Revised Aug. 9, 2005 by Doug Baldwin