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Welcome to the Virtual Pests web site!
Read about the Project:
"Software Design and Implementation
in the Introductory CS Course: JavaScript and Virtual Pests"
by Jeffrey L. Popyack, Ali Shokoufandeh, and Paul Zoski, presented
at the Fifth Annual Consortium for Computing in Small Colleges: Northeastern
Conference (CCSCNE-2000), April 28-9, 2000.
More Information about the Course:
Introduction
to Computer Science Course Website, Fall 2002
The Assignments:
Fall 2002: Part
I, Part
II, Part
III, Extra
Credit (Java Applet)
Selected Student Work, Fall
2002
Virtual Pest "Starter
Kit" based on the example in Parts I-II
More Archives:
Fall 1999: Part
I, Part
II, Part
III
Selected
Student Work, Fall 1999
Fall 1998: Part
I, Part
II
Selected
Student Work, Fall 1998
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Brief Summary:
This is a three-part assignment given to first-term freshmen in a
breadth-oriented "Introduction to Computer Science" course.
It is based on the concept of the handheld "virtual pet".
Students design and implement web pages using HTML forms for the user
interface and JavaScript functions for the behavior that results in
a customized "virtual pest".
There is a followup extra-credit assignment, to port the virtual
pest to a Java applet.
Why it's Nifty:
- stresses design first
- encourages creativity
- expandable
- cross platform
- inexpensive (need a web browser and text editor)
- underscores importance of programming
- starter kit provided
- JavaScript lays the foundation for programming in C++/Java
Abstract from the Paper:
Our introductory computer science course is a breadth-oriented exposure
to the computing field offered to students majoring in computer science
and mathematics, who have widely disparate prior computing and programming
experience. It is not a programming course per se, although programming
concepts and techniques play a significant role throughout. A challenge
faced by the instructor is to give 'universal assignments' that cover
core material, are sufficiently interesting to engage advanced students,
yet may also be completed by students with weaker backgrounds. We
present a project sequence designed for this purpose based on the
concept of the handheld "virtual pet". Students designed
and implemented web pages using HTML forms for the user interface
and JavaScript functions for the behavior that resulted in their own
"virtual pests". These assignments stressed the importance
of design before coding.
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