Grad 965 Classroom Research and Assessment Methods Course Project Course : Cs 515 Data Structures

Although programming assignments in CS515 Data Structures course are reeective of data structure design principles, students' focus is geared towards learning speciic C++ programming skills. Balancing the mastery of fundamentals and the art of programming is still a largely debatable and debated issue in computer science education of introductory computer science (CS) courses. Most educators agree that programming should be just a tool that helps understand and apply basic concepts, and learn even more complex concepts. However, C++ is not a simple, lab-type programming language. Gaining proociency in using the language takes time and practice from many assignments. Students show maximum interest in learning the language because it is the currency of the CS jobs. Overlooking design principles to make the program work and to submit it in time is a quite frequent study approach. How should the teacher prevent a radical and exclusive shift of interest towards strictly building C++ programs? What teaching approaches should be devised to keep students engaged in learning concepts, or abstract aspects of developing software systems? Programming skills or practice should be consolidated while learning theory. In fact, the CS515 Data Structures course prepares students for the next required theory course CS658 Introduction to Analysis of Algorithms or CS659 Introduction to Theory of Computation. Teaching Goal : To help students understand the fundamental concepts of data structures, and \see" the value of theory and its interaction with practice, despite a generalized, almost exclusive emphasis on programming expertise and skills from today's job market.