[Edu-sig] Programs/Projects suggestions wanted

[WHITSTON@ltu.edu]

To all:

I will be teaching an Introduction to Programming class to incoming college
freshman (engineering and computer science students) using Python (and
VPython) this fall.  The class meets twice a week for 15 weeks.  For most of
these students, Python will be their first true programming language, and so
the purpose of the class is to get them to understand how to design simple
algorithms (i.e. input/calculate/output loops mostly) and translate those
algorithms into programs or functions.  The current language is "C" and most
of these students fight the syntax all term without gaining any good
programming skills.

With this background, I would like some suggestions for programs/projects that
these students would find interesting and/or fun.  I have checked the archives
and I will be including the "Game of Life".  Other programs/projects include
"Odd order Magic Squares", "Prime number sieves", and "word occurrences in
Shakespeare's plays" along with a variety of simpler programs which lead to
these projects.

I will summarize any suggestions and report back to group later (anyone
planning on attending SIG-CSE 2002?)

Thank you for any help in this area.

Howard Whitston
Instructional Technology Specialist/Adjunct Professor
Lawrence Technological University
whitston@ltu.edu