Laboratory Assignments

You may wish to bring a USB drive to every lab, or be prepared to transfer files to and from a campus server or your own computer in your room if you have one.

• First Week:

  Lab Entrance Assignment: See the Reading and Homework Assignments page for the lab entrance assignment.

  Lab 1: Getting Started with BlueJ

  You may start on Programming Project #1 (which is due at the beginning of Second Week Lab) anytime after finishing Lab 1.

  Friday Mini-Lab:

  • Open the Aquarium Lab Series project from your CS 110 folder using BlueJ.
  • Double-click on the AquaSimApplication icon in the project diagram to look at its source code in an editor window. Notice how similar this class is to the TemplateOfClassWithMainMethod class you looked at in Lab 1; all it does is construct a single object and then invoke a single method on that object. Close the editor window.
  • Double-click on the AquariumController icon in the project diagram to look at its source code. Move the editor window containing the source code aside so that you can see the two BlueJ windows (editor window and project window) side by side. Run the Aquarium simulation without using main, as you did in the the "Look, Ma, no main!" exercise from the Getting Started with BlueJ lab. As you construct each object and invoke each method, notice how your actions, and the parameters you provide, compare with the Java statements in the constructor and the run method in the AquariumController class.
  • Complete the Creating Fish in an Aquarium mini-lab. Skip the "Downloading and Running the Initial Program" exercise, since you did that in lab on Tuesday; start with the "Simple Modification" exercise. You may also skip the first two bullets in the "Constructing Objects" exercise, since they were part of the Discussion Questions for today; pick up with the third bullet in that exercise.
  • You do not need to print the code or class documentation from today's lab, but if you do not finish it during class time, you should finish it before our next class meeting. We will build upon this lab for the next week or two, and, to be kind to the environment, you will only print and hand in your work at the end.

• Second Week:

  Monday Mini-Lab: A Whirl of Color

  Hand in: Hand in clearly written answers to the separate Stop and Think exercises. (You do not need to write up your answers to the parenthetical Stop and Think exercises embedded in the programming exercises.)

  Lab Entrance Assignment: See the Reading and Homework Assignments page for the lab entrance assignment.

  Lab 2: Talking Robot: Using IF-ELSE and Random Numbers

  You may start on Programming Project #2 (which is due at the beginning of Lab 3) anytime after finishing Lab 2.

  Friday Mini-Lab: Keep On Moving

• Third Week:

  Lab Entrance Assignment:

  • Exercises R6.2 and R.6.3 on p. 238. You should bring these, neatly typed, to lab.

  Lab 3: Using Histograms

  You may start on Programming Project #3 (which is due at the beginning of Lab 4) anytime after finishing Lab 3 and the More Fish! Mini-Lab.

  Wednesday Mini-Lab: More Fish! (You may find it useful to review the Introduction to ArrayLists document.)

  Friday In-class Exercise: Exercise 3 from Grid Plotter

  You may start on Programming Project #4 (which is due on Friday of Week 4) anytime after finishing this in-class exercise.

• Fourth Week:

  Monday Mini-Lab:Ascending & Descending Fish

  Lab 4 Grid Plotter

• Fifth Week:

  Lab 5: Practice Exam

  Friday Mini-Lab: Experimenting with the Marine Biology Simulation program

• Sixth Week:
  Lab Entrance Assignment:
  • Read pp. 18 - 33 (up to Fish movement methods) in the Marine Biology Simulation case study
  • Discussion questions: You should be able to answer ALL of the analysis questions you come across in the case study as you do the reading. (You may skip Ex 6 on p. 26, though, if you want.) If there are any you feel unsure of, take that as a sign that you need to re-read a section or bring your question up in class. You should definitely be prepared to discuss the following in class:
    • Questions 1 and 2 on p. 24 of the MBS case study
    • Questions 6 & 7 on p. 31
    • Question 2 on p. 33

    Lab 6: Minnow Lab

    You may start on Programming Project #5 (which is due at the beginning of Lab 7) anytime after finishing this in-class exercise.

• Seventh Week:

  Lab Entrance Assignment: Read pp. 63 - 68 in Chapter 4 of the Marine Biology Simulation case study

  Lab 7: DarterFish and CircleFish Lab

  You may start on Programming Project #6 (which is due at the beginning of Lab 8) anytime after finishing the reading in Chapter 4 of the Marine Biology Simulation case study.

• Eighth Week:

  Lab 8: Object-Oriented Design

• Ninth Week:

  Lab 9: Time to work on the Final Programming Project

  Wednesday Mini-Lab: Applet Mini-Lab

• Tenth Week:

  Lab Entrance Assignment: Finish the Applet Mini-Lab

  Lab 10: Balloon Race Applet