Video games challenge and motivate data structure students

Authors:
Robert F. Smith
Affiliations:
North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina
Venue:
ACM-SE 30 Proceedings of the 30th annual Southeast regional conference
Year:
1992

Citing 2
Cited 2

Data structures with abstract data types and Pascal: 2nd edition

Data structures with abstract data types and Pascal: 2nd edition
Programming in Pascal

Programming in Pascal

Application-based modules using apprentice learning for CS 2

SIGCSE '97 Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Engagement: gaming throughout the curriculum

Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

At North Carolina Central University, our computer science majors complete one year of introductory programming before tackling more advanced data structures such as queues, stacks, heaps and graphs. Because of their lack of proficiency, the kinds of programs they have written in the past have been limited to simple problems such as computing grade point averages, and calculating the value of fictional inventories - pretty dry stuff. We set out to motivate our second year students with challenging, but fun programming assignments. Our work resulted in three video game projects that use many of the fundamental data structures, but are straightforward to implement in about two weeks, by a prepared student.