Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!warren
From: warren@psu-cs.UUCP (Warren Harrison)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Re: Soft eng in 1st yr classes.. pontification
Message-ID: <570@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 88 03:51:08 GMT
References: <555@psu-cs.UUCP> <1434@ur-tut.UUCP> <3415@bunker.UUCP> <5359@utah-cs.UUCP> <36845UH2@PSUVM> <563@psu-cs.UUCP> <1167@pembina.UUCP>
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 20

> Phase 2: Give them a hard assignment that you couldn't do in the time allotted.
> To be fair, tell the students this well in advance. There is no sense in
> treating them like children. Give them the straight goods. "This assignment is
> vicious, rough and nasty. It's designed to show you how little you know."
> Make it look superficially simple. Then mark it as if they were all grads.
> 
> Then solve it in 3 minutes. (If you can manage it. Getting something that the
> uninitiated can't solve and that you can explain in no time will be tricky.)

Real good idea.  Any ideas on the assignment?  I've been trying to figure such
a task out for a number of years now.  It is important that the students under-
stand your solution, so anything too tough is out of the question.  Keep in mind
I'm talking people who can't understand how you can use a key value as a s sub-
script.  What seems even more puzzling is the ability of my current students is
no where close to the level I observed 10 years ago when I did my first TAing.
Has anyone else noticed this?

Warren Harrison
The University of Portland
"The School on the Bluff"