In this lab, students dissect a working implementation of an Anagrams game using process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL). Learning objectives include tracing through a sequence of method calls, JUnit testing, and information processing. This lab allows students to read an existing program rather than creating one from scratch.
Teams of 3-4 students work well in this lab. Students should be assigned roles such as manager, recorder, presenter, and analyst. Prior exposure to static methods is recommended. This activity includes some questions that are fairly specific to using JUnit within the Eclipse IDE.
Additional recommendations include:
- To quickly examine this activity, see the PDF posted below. This is the instruction sheet that the students will work through.
- To look more deeply or modify the assignment for your own use, get the latest version of the PDF, Java code, and any other files here: https://github.com/PeterDrake/ljing2-skeletons/tree/master/Anagrams
- To quickly install and run this activity, as well as all of the other Learn Java in N Games activities, follow the instructions here: http://ljing.org/.
- See pogil.org and cspogil.org for more information on running POGIL activities.
This lab employs relevant and meaningful content by using a word puzzle called “Anagrams”. This lab is also relevant in that a number of students hope to go into the computer game industry (which is bigger than the film industry). Finally, games are a valuable stepping-stone from "toy" problems to "real-world" problems: the rules are nontrivial and can have subtle consequences, but everything is still well-defined. Additionally, this POGIL lab demonstrates an example of a well-structured collaborative learning experience and has significant benefits for engagement and inclusion.