Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Open-ended Project

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Unknown said...

All of my projects are open ended. I generally say things like, "create a project that uses lists and dictionaries." Or, "create a project that uses classes." And yes, I get a lot of different things, but that allows the students to see lots of different things. They all present their projects to the class,and often, that inspires students to try more complex ways of programming, or it allows them to see more efficient ways of programming. My requirements generally include creativity and complexity, but I only require the use of specific concepts when we're learning something specific.

Garth said...

I also use very open ended projects in my more advanced classes. I will give a general assignment like “Build a Space Invaders type game, i.e. things fall from above and you shoot or touch them”. I then start working on other smaller programs that contain the tools they might want to use for their project. How do we get something to move right and left? Arrows, mouse, tilt, touch (depending on the hardware)? How do we get something to fall? How do we detect a hit/contact/event? Each little project is less open ended with a specific learning goal so they can build a tool box of code snippets. They then use this “sub” knowledge to create their game. The primary project has a due date a long time away and allows me/them to hit a lot of topics on the way.