Final Project

See About Assessments for an overview of our plan for assessments.

The multi-week project will give you the opportunity to check in with instructors and/or your section leader for feedback while developing a solution to a problem that you get to motivate and develop. You will write a section, diagnostic, or exam problem and then present and teach it in a 1-on-1, 30-minute meeting at the end of the quarter.

We recommend taking a look at section problems and diagnostic/diagnostic practice problems as sources of inspiration. You can check out a more extensive example project write-up based on a diagnostic problem here.

Overview + Timeline

In your final project, you'll be writing and presenting a problem from scratch that could serve as a section, diagnostic, or exam problem. The goal of the project is to allow you to dive more deeply into a content area that you want to improve on, as well as to demonstrate your growth in the class. We also hope you'll take the chance to learn more about a topic that interests you.

You should not use outside resources beyond section problems, diagnostic problems, diagnostic practice problems, and lecture examples to gain inspiration for your project. In particular, you are not allowed to copy any part of an online problem or Google search for existing examples.

Here's our suggested timeline for the project, with the last two bullet points representing hard deadlines:

• July 27: By the end of this week,
  • Pick problem topic based on areas of improvement that showed based on your diagnostic results
  • Write a first draft of your problem + at least one solution by the end of this week
• August 3: By the end of this week,
  • Talk with an SL, Trip, Nick, or Kylie during LaIR or OH this week to get feedback on your problem
  • Finish writing up answers to the required questions, as well as any alternate solutions
• Sunday, August 9: Project write-up due at 11:59pm PDT
• August 13-August 16: Final project presentations
  • You will sign up for a 30-minute slot with your SL sometime in this 4-day window (Thursday through Sunday)

Project Write-up

Write-ups should be no more than 3-5 pages single-spaced. See here for an example based on one of the mid-quarter diagnostic problems.

I. Problem Description (approx. 1-1.5 pages)

Imagine you’re writing a section, diagnostic, or exam question. What would it look like? Write a description of the problem (which can also include a short motivation). This description should not give away the solution (you’re not teaching the problem in this section) and should include any starter code or function prototypes necessary for a student to complete the problem.

II. Solutions (approx. 1-2 pages)

This section should include correct solutions to the problem and a brief description of each. Solution descriptions should include the Big O (come talk to course staff if you’re not sure about the runtime for something!) and an explanation of how the solutions differ and why students might opt for one vs. the other. Note that our example write-up has four solutions, but you should only include 2-3.

III. Problem Motivation (approx. 0.5-1 page)

This section contains two main parts: the conceptual motivation for the problem (why a teacher might use it) and the personal motivation for the problem (why you chose to focus on it). For the conceptual motivation, discuss what course material is covered by the problem and what understandings a student would need to successfully answer it. For the personal motivation, discuss how this problem demonstrates your growth in the class (e.g. what area of improvement did you choose to focus on post-diagnostic?) and why you were particularly interested in the topics covered by your project.

IV. Common Misconceptions (approx. 0.5-1 page)

When writing this section, it may be helpful to think about what difficulties came up for you as you were designing the problem. What might be challenging for students about this problem (especially as it’s related to the concepts you discussed)? What common misconceptions or bugs might pop up in students’ solutions? If you would like to include code snippets here to demonstrate bugs, you may do so, but it is not required.

V. Diagnostic Reflection (OPTIONAL)

If you would like to gain points back on your diagnostic by demonstrating that you have now mastered a concept you struggled with earlier in the quarter, you should include this section in your write-up. In particular, in this section you should:

• Indicate one problem from the diagnostic that you believe you should get credit back for. (Only problems 1 through 4 are eligible, not the extra credit problem.)
• Discuss how you improved in the topic area covered by that problem (i.e. code reading and Big O, C++ fundamentals, ADTs, or recursion).
• Explain how your final project problem demonstrates your improvement in that topic area.
• Answer the question: How would you now approach that diagnostic problem differently from a problem-solving standpoint? (This part should focus on new strategies and perspectives you've gained around the concept, not on simply reproducing the correct solution!)

Note that including this section does not automatically guarantee that you will receive all the points back for this particular diagnostic problem. The course staff will evaluate whether or not your final project demonstrates mastery of the chosen topic area.

Presentation Guidelines

Ever wondered what it would be like to get a taste of being a section leader? This is your chance! During the last week of classes from Thursday, August 13 to Sunday, August 16, you’ll have the opportunity to present your problem to your section leader.

You’ll be able to sign up for a 30-minute slot with your SL, and you should prepare between 15-20 minutes of presentation, leaving 10-15 minutes for Q&A. The only difference here is that you don’t have to get your section leader to come up with the solution to the problem (as would happen in a normal section); you can just present the problem and the solution directly.

During your presentation, you should address the following questions (or be prepared to answer them from your SL):

1. Why did you decide to focus on this problem?
2. In what setting would this problem appear (section, diagnostic, exam) and how is it assessing students’ understanding of the concepts you indicated in your write-up?
3. What’s challenging about this problem, especially as it relates to the concepts it’s assessing?
4. What common misconceptions might students have when attempting to solve your problem?
5. What would happen if certain modifications were made to the solutions to your problem?
6. How does this problem demonstrate your growth in the class?
7. What did you learn from working on this problem?

Project Checklist & Rubric

For each of the categories (rows) below, you will receive a 0, ✓-, ✓, or ✓+. The bucket grade you receive for each will be dependent on both your written report and your presentation. If it helps, you can think of each section as 25% of the overall final project weight.