Data Acquisition, Output Control, and Graphics: An Enhanced Lab for First-Year Computer Science

该项目将在与CS1相关的封闭实验室中提供一套新的高度激励的体验，CS1是计算机科学的第一年课程。这些实验室将让学生从外部世界(传感器、操纵杆等)获取数据，显示并以其他方式处理数据，并控制外部世界的过程。这与与计算机科学入门课程相关的传统编程实验室不同，在传统的编程实验室中，学生经常被分配一些小练习，这些练习没有太大的内在兴趣，与专业程序员、工程师或科学家编写的程序没有太大相似之处，也没有一致的上下文(或联系)。我们在1997年春季对操纵杆实验室的初步体验相当成功，学生们的反应很热烈。我们计划的许多实验将涉及学生团队，而不是个人工作。预计这些新的实验体验将显著提高学生的学习动机，因为它们将允许学生对计算机进行编程，以处理真实世界的数据，控制外部设备，并生成看起来专业的图形输出。为该项目开发的实验练习将存放在各种实验室储存库中，并将通过包括万维网在内的许多其他渠道分发。

This project will provide a new set of highly motivating experiences in the closed laboratory associated with CS1, the first-year computer science course. These labs will have students acquiring data from the external world (sensors, joystick, etc.), displaying and otherwise processing it, and controlling processes in the external world. This contrasts with the traditional programming labs associated with introductory computer science courses where students are often assigned a number of small exercises which do not have much intrinsic interest, do not bear much resemblance to the programs produced by professional programmers, engineers, or scientists, and have no consistent context (or connection). Our preliminary experience with a joystick lab during spring 1997 was quite successful; student reaction was enthusiastic. Many of the labs that we are planning will involve student teams rather than individual work. It is anticipated that these new lab experiences will significantly increase student motivation, since they will allow students to program the computer to work with real-world data, control external devices, and produce professional-looking graphic output. The lab exercises developed for this project will be deposited in various lab repositories and will be distributed through a number of other channels, including the World Wide Web.