Re: Perl Assignments Needed

[amarquis]

How much math is in your computer science? I remember in my high school the assignments were mostly simple computational physics and math problems.

If you are interested in computational stuff, you might want to check out Project Euler. They have many, many problems, some of which are suited to a novice programmer (Problems like "How many numbers from 1 to 1000 are divisible by 3 or 5?"). They are all problems that can be solved in a multitude of different ways, and the first ones can be done with a few lines of efficient Perl.

Also, I don't know your students, but would it be fun to have a golf or speed competition? Let the kids see who can make the shortest or fastest solution, and then discuss it? Just tossing out ideas.

(I'll admit, I laughed at the anonymous monk's easy assignment)

[salva]

How much math is in your computer science? I remember in my high school the assignments were mostly simple computational physics and math problems.

When I was at high school, I liked very much to mix my programming skills with the knowledge I got from other subjects. For instance:

• write a 2D solar system simulator
• reproduce Mendel experiments
• write a plotting program for math functions
• write a linear equation solver
• draw 2D proyections of simple 3D figures
• ...

[amarquis]

The 2D solar system simulator is kind of neat, I remember doing that too.

The reason that I lean towards some sort of math problem or physical simulation is that when I was in high school I was always wondering "Where's the application of this? How good do I have to be before I can do anything with direct application?" in my programming classes. With something like a 2D solar system simulator you can say "Hey, I built something that charts the courses of the planets based only on the laws of physics and my programming skills, how neat is that?"