Students will be able to...
- Use lists to implement a complete version of "Hangman"
- Exercise good programming practices to produce code that is not only functional but also elegant and well-written
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Project 4 Alternative - Snowman (Download in Word) (Link to PDF)
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[Optional] Printouts of the specification
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Link to an online version of Hangman, such as http://www.playhangman.com/
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A word list from which words can be selected for the game, such as http://www.mieliestronk.com/corncob_lowercase.txt
| Duration | Description |
|---|---|
| 5 minutes | Welcome, attendance, bell work, announcements |
| 15 minutes | Review and introduce project |
| As needed | Lab time for Hangman project |
- Review/Introduction
- Review the various skills and concepts have been learned so far in the unit.
- Put particular emphasis on the maintenance of lists and traversals
- Remind students that their solutions to previous assignments are an excellent resource when trying to accomplish similar tasks.
- Walk students through the project specification, pointing out important details, potential pitfalls, and requirements.
- Focus students' attention on the checkpoints to help them avoid becoming overwhelmed.
- Help students import the word list into a SNAP list, either by right-clicking on the list view and selecting "import" or by parsing the online list directly using the "http://" block. This is not one of the objectives of the project, so feel free to provide starter code if you prefer.
- Emphasize that generating the "word pattern" or "blanks" and keeping that sequence up-to-date with each guess is the hardest part of the assignment, and should not be overlooked.
- Remind students that it will be important to keep straight what each variable and list in the program is used for. Each variable or list should have a single purpose, and those purposes should never be conflated.
- Review the various skills and concepts have been learned so far in the unit.
- Project
- This is a summative assessment project. Students should be given at least a few days in class to work on the project. The exact schedule should be determined by your teaching team based on overall class capability and other factors.
- If most students have the ability to work at home, you can consider reducing the amount of in-class time provided and requiring students to spend time working at home.
- Provide a means for students to ask questions throughout the project and provide assistance as needed.
- This is a summative assessment project. Students should be given at least a few days in class to work on the project. The exact schedule should be determined by your teaching team based on overall class capability and other factors.
- The concept of a "hangman" may be troubling to some students, especially in parts of the country with a history of lynching or other similar types of violence. If you believe that to be the case, feel free to rename the game (e.g. "Wheel of Fortune") and choose a different image or theme for tracking incorrect guesses (such as popping balloons).
- If any students do not have the ability to work at home, ensure enough in-class time is provided to complete the assignment, offering extensions if necessary.
- Advanced students can be encouraged to add extensions such as:
- Enabling guessing of the entire word
- Allowing the user to specify the length of the word to be guessed
- Keeping statistics (win-loss record, fewest guesses, etc.) across games
- Very advanced students can attempt Evil Hangman: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/sp13/hw/hw3.html
- Struggling students can be given starter code or exempted from certain features
- Though it is the most difficult part of the assignment, tracking the "blanks" is the best practice working with lists and should be preserved.
- The requirements to display a graphical hangman, track repeated guesses, and specifically recognize a win can be removed for students in need of significant simplification.