[Edu-sig] Re: Intro and question: assignments/projects for year end

[Brent Burley]

HotToPot@aol.com wrote:
> If its Game of Life, start them with functioning code and challenge
> them to extend it in some fairly specific way.
> ...
> But don't ask them to face the blank page.

I've prepared something along these lines.  I've written a functioning
Reversi game that provides a framework for defining new computer player
strategies.  It's meant as a general programming project and an
introduction to AI.  There's an accompanying tutorial.  See
http://erburley.home.netcom.com/Reversi-index.html

Reversi is one of the first games I programmed (in high school, in BASIC
on an Apple II+).  I  rewrote this game several times in various
languages on various computers as I learned more about programming and
AI.

Most high school students would probably rather learn to program arcade
games and graphics.  I think that's fine and I'm interested in making
some materials that could be used to that end.  However, for the right
student, I think AI programming can be a more interesting programming
problem since it causes you to think about how humans think, how
computers think, how they are related and how they are different.

	Brent