CS2013-final-report

CSC 161: Imperative Problem Solving and Data Structures, Grinnell
College
Grinnell, Iowa USA
Henry M. Walker
walker@cs.grinnell.edu
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~walker/courses/161.sp12/
Knowledge Areas that contain topics and learning outcomes covered in the course
Knowledge Area
Total Hours of Coverage
Software Development Fundamentals (SDF) 27
Programming Languages (PL) 9
Architecture and Organization (AR) 3
Software Engineering (SE) 3
Social Issues and Professional Practice (SP) 2
Algorithms and Complexity (AL) 1
Computational Science (CN) 1
Information Assurance and Security (IAS) 1
Intelligent Systems (IS) 1
Brief description of the course’s format and place in the undergraduate curriculum
This course is the second in Grinnell's three-course, multi-paradigm introductory CS sequence. Many students are
first- or second-year students who are exploring computer science as a possible major (after becoming interested in
the subject from the first course). Other students may enroll in the course to broaden their liberal arts background
or to learn elements of imperative problems solving and C to support other work in the sciences or engineering.
As with Grinnell's other introductory courses, each class session meets in a lab, and work flows seamlessly
between lecture and lab-based activities. Work generally is divided into eight 1.5-2 week modules. Each module
begins with a lecture giving an overview of topics and demonstrating examples. Students then work collaborative
in pairs on 3-5 labs, and the pairs change for each module. Each module concludes with a project that integrates
topics and applies the ideas to an interesting problem.
Course description and goals
This course utilizes robotics as an application domain in studying imperative problem solving, data representation,
and memory management. Additional topics include assertions and invariants, data abstraction, linked data
structures, an introduction to the GNU/Linux operating system, and programming the low-level, imperative
language C.
Course topics
This course explores elements of computing that have reasonably close ties to the architecture of computers,
compilers, and operating systems. The course takes an imperative view of problem solving, supported by
programming in the C programming language. Some topics include:
• imperative problem solving: top-down design, common algorithms, assertions, invariants
• C programming: syntax and semantics, control structures, functions, parameters, macro processing,
compiling, linking, program organization
• concepts with data: data abstraction, integer and floating-point representation, string representation,
arrays, unions, structures, linked list data structures, stacks, and queues
• machine-level issues: data representation, pointers, memory management
• GNU/Linux operating system: commands, bash scripts, software development tools
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