Teaching programming to liberal arts students: using loop invariants

ABSTRACT

Loop invariants have long been present in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on programming methodology or program correctness. Recently there has been an increased interest in using loop invariants in teaching more elementary courses. In this paper, its successful use in teaching elementary programming in a computer literacy course for non-majors is described. The techniques described here, that are necessary in order to work successfully with this population, are also applicable to the teaching of programming to computer science majors.

REFERENCES

• 1: Owen Astrachan, Loop Invariants as Pictures. The Proceedings of the Twenty-second SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, (March, 1991).
• 2: David Arnow, The Iliad and the WHILE loop: computer literacy in a liberal arts program, Proceedings of the twenty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.78-81, March 07-08, 1991, San Antonio, Texas, United States
• 3: David M. Arnow, Program Correctness Proofs in a Computer Literacy Course. The Proceedings of Frontiers In Education '92, (November, 1992).
• 4: Lymae V. Cheney, 50 Hours-- A Core Curriculum for College Students. National Endowment for the Humanities, (October, 1989).
• 5: Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, A Discipline of Programming, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1997
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.10 Design**
            Subjects: Methodologies**

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.3 LOGICS AND MEANINGS OF PROGRAMS
      F.3.1 Specifying and Verifying and Reasoning about Programs
          Subjects: Invariants

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.m Miscellaneous
          Subjects: Computer literacy**

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages