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cs10
6. Algorithms (LA Review - Sp15)
Your Name:
Overview of Lab Comments: i.e. Was this lab good or bad? Too fast? Too Slow? Does it need something new?
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- [ ] Page Link:
Type of Issue: i.e. (code) bug, grammar, typo, lack of clarity, etc
Severity: i.e. "prevents students from continuing", "minor inconvenience", etc
Comments: Description of the problem, what can be done to fix it, etc.
- [ ] Page Link:
Type of Issue: i.e. (code) bug, grammar, typo, lack of clarity, etc
Severity: i.e. "prevents students from continuing", "minor inconvenience", etc
Comments: Description of the problem, what can be done to fix it, etc.
Justin Kim Overview of the Lab Comments: This is a very short lab and if I remember correctly, a lot of the conceptual ideas were taught during lab to help students get introduced the idea of algorithms. I think the lab the fine the way it is, because the TA's will teach the students in the beginning of class a foundation for how to go about the problem. I think its fine. I didn't have any issues with grammar, page links not working, lack of clarity. Like I said, usually TA's cover a lot of this in the beginning of their lab hour, so what's on the lab would just be reaffirming what they had learned from the TA. Nice and simple
Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/improving-our-number-finder.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&course=cs10_sp15.html&noassignment&noreading&novideo Type of Issue: Spelling Severity: Minimal Comments: Is it supposed to be Memoization or Memorization on the last question of memoization slide?
Your Name: Susan Shen
Overview of Lab Comments: Overall, there seem to be no bugs in the lab. Everything is pretty straightforward, and last semester, I found the cup demonstration to be rather useful in visualizing how a number-search algorithm works. However, I do recall the memoization portion to be rather difficult, and would have liked to see some kind of conceptual image being show on how the memory slots change as we search through the list. Reading about the steps can only do so much – seeing how it works would make a huge difference.
Charles Thorson
Overview of Lab Comments:
Lots of conceptual explanations in the beginning, but the inclusion of a peer discussion keeps it from getting too dull. The fact that the lab itself is relatively short is good, since the finding number in sorted list tends to cause the students a lot of grief and time. It's a bit of a conceptually heavy lab, so I feel that the interactive parts and demonstrations will be very critical.
- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: grammar Severity: minor Comments: Right above the blue box, the line "This range should shrink after each guess because you can throw away THE half of the numbers on the wrong side of the center point." has a extra "THE".
Your Name: Sean Sullivan
The lab is a rather short one. However, as I remember doing the lab, creating algorithms was a lengthy process. The lab was short, but with a dense with content. The suggestion of working as partners is extremely valuable for this lab.
Anusha Syed
The fact that there are only a few exercises is perfect because it allows the students to actually understand all the concepts presented. Although few exercises, some of them (specifically the memoization one) are pretty challenging so it would be nice to have some type of visual representation of memoization with a chart of some sort.
Megan Carey
Overview of Lab Comments: This lab is definitely harder than previous ones, but I think that two hours is an appropriate amount of time since there are fewer exercises. Memoization is a tricky concept so a little further explanation or hinting at implementation might be useful to them.
Your Name: Ilina Bhaya-Grossman
Overview of Lab Comments: Very good lab explanation pages that boil down complicated concepts into bite-sized chunks of accessible information. I remember the activity being a lot of fun and helpful for understanding the algorithm concept. I think that it may be more appealing to split up the sorts so that it's not all a lot of text at once but thats just a minor suggestion. I think it's a good lab length and will challenge students just enough. I did not find any bugs or errors in the slides!
Your Name: Paige Pratt
Overview of Lab Comments: The lab was very good and does a great job at using other examples to explain algorithms. Make sure to do the cups activity close to the start of the lab. When I did it we waited a while to do the activity which made the lab harder since the activity really helped make things easier. I think the lab had a good pace and although it seems short it will still some time for students to get it right. I didn't see any issues with the lab.
Your Name: Caroline Kim
Overview of Lab Comments: This lab was relatively short, but is definitely giving the students a chance to try out different methods and algorithms to find a single answer (finding a number in a list). It seems very helpful that the lab provides examples (like how there are 200+ recipes to make apple pie) to show that there are multiple ways to get to the same conclusion, even though there are tradeoffs for different methods. Even though some of the concepts in this lab are a little difficult to understand (like memoization), the lab explains most of them concisely and effectively.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/improving-our-number-finder.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: Lack of clarity Severity: Minor inconvenience Comments: Since the concept of memoization is new and confusing, it would be helpful if the instructor (TA) can go over this concept in lab (as a whole). Also providing extra information on how to record previously obtained data (maybe by using visual representations) might be helpful.
Name: Max Counts
As others have said, this lab can be a little dense with conceptual information, so discussing with partners is a good strategy to help understand exactly what algorithms are and the pros/cons of different algorithms.
Name: Benjamin Smith
Overview of lab comments: This lab seems fairly short but appears to cram a lot of information in the few slides. I liked the examples that they show to better help understand the big idea and concepts of algorithms. With the difficulty of the problems i think that the length and 2 hour lab time will be perfect for them to understand the ideas and do the activities.
Your Name: Amy Vatcha
Overview of Lab Comments: Too much reading on the first couple of pages but the group activity serves as a fun practical application of algorithms. Also, the diagram explaining the sorting mechanism serves as a great visual example that explains how to go about solving the problem. Overall, a great lab that focuses on a narrow but crucial topic in Snap and is paced perfectly.
Your Name: Florin-James Langer
Overview of Lab Comments: Lab is a lot shorter than usual, but the group work element makes up for that, and is definitely a good change from the usual.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/improving-our-number-finder.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: typo Severity: i.e. confuses students Comments: Even after emphasizing that memoization is not memorization, it says memorization at the very last bullet.
Your Name: Seungha Lee
Overview of Lab Comments: The lab was really short but I think it helps the students focus on understanding the concepts behind algorithms. I think adding a few more practice problems or examples could have been more helpful.
Your Name: Stanley Ho Overview of Lab Comments: The lab is short and there doesn't seem to be any bugs. The only thing that I find confusing is memoization. Personally, I found it hard to understand and am not still fully sure how to use it. It's a hard concept, and more explanations would help.
Your Name: Eurie Oh
Overview of Lab Comments: I think that this lab is of a good length considering that it give challenging problems for students to answer. I think that the slight variations in each problem help students understand algorithms and learn how to approach these problems. I also think that doing a live example away from the computer first was a great way to introduce the thought process behind solving these sorts of questions.
Your Name: Jesse Luo
Overview of Lab comments:
Lab seems pretty short, but it's definitely a more difficult one. The sort problem I remember took quite a couple tries to get correct. The live demonstration is definitely helpful but I think this lab has the most increase in conceptual knowledge compared to the last few. I think there could be a bit more meat about the sort, it seems like it's just a little bit that describes it and then immediately tells the student to create the sort algorithm. With the difficulty of this concept, I think it would be better to have more explanation.
Your Name: Satoko Ayabe
Overview of Lab Comments: I think this lab was a good length, because algorithms can be a tricky topic for students (and the minimum/maximum is a bit tricky to figure out). I also think that the cups demonstration will be really helpful because it lets students visualize the process. Also, I noticed there are no more partner swaps anymore in this lab. I think this is effective because this is when some students will start to want to work on their own.
Your Name: Rocio Guerrero
Overview of Lab Comments: I think it's good that the lab only had a few exercises. The exercises seem challenging, and, in my experience, just trying to understand the algorithms behind them took a while. It is definitely a good way of teaching the concept of algorithms. I'm not quite sure if students will understand what they're supposed to do just from reading the lab on their own, so it's good that it's mentioned that they are encouraged to seek help.
Your Name: Sonali Verma
Overview of Lab Comments: I thought this lab was a great overview of binary search, and the activity definitely helps students understand the concept. The students may have some difficulty understudying what "memory" represents in the min/max problem for it is a bit complicated to understand. Otherwise, I feel the lab is straightforward and to the point.
Melanie Silva
Overview of Lab Comments: This was a good lab, and had less intensive coding which is a good break for the students. Images were helpful in understanding how to sort lists of numbers.
- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/everyones-got-algorithms.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: lack of clarity Severity: minor inconvenience Comments: "the concepts behind the algorithm are not affected by these types of conditions, in the same way that the outcome of a well-written recipe should (hopefully) not be affected by the cook or kitchen." This is the last sentence of the page that is after a semicolon. "these types of conditions" can be explained better and the sentence can be on it's own without being attached with a semicolon.
Lara McConnaughey This Lab is a great intro to algorithms. The cup explanation of different ways to complete the same task using different methodologies is a great way to show students what an algorithm is. I think that the memorized function is complicated and more visual on that page would be much more helpful for the students.
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- [ ] Page Link:http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/too-many-blocks.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&course=cs10_sp15.html&novideo&noreading&noassignment Type of Issue:minor Severity: i.e. minor Comments: This page could use visuals
Jessica Larson
Overview of Lab Comments: I think its great that this lab incorporates a group effort, its really helpful to have a tangible representation of what is going on with the code.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: a lot of info on one page Severity: a little confusion Comments: There is a lot of information on this page and I think it might be better broken up into a few pages with different stages of the same graphic.
Your Name: Christian Lista-Nicoloso
Overview of Lab Comments: this is a very helpful lab and I found it very well done. However, I think the memoization part is a little confusing. I think it should offer some more tips on how to procede --- For each specific Issue (Copy this section as many times as necessary) ---
- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&course=cs10_sp15.html&novideo&noreading&noassignment
Type of Issue: Text is a little confusing Severity: i.e. may cause students to lose time making sure they opened the right file or if they are looking at the wrong thing Comments: The text says that "two empty blocks are provided", but when you open the file, you see only one block in the current sprite, then another block in the other sprite and then a third block in a third sprite. I personally got confused when I read "two" blocks because I kept trying to figure out where the second block was, and when I thought that maybe they meant empty blocks in total across all sprites it took me a while to convince myself that's what I was supposed to understand because in that case there would be three empty blocks. I think that if the lab specifically said that there inside the starter file there are three different sprites, containing three different empty blocks that we will be working on, there wouldn't be much space for confusion
Your Name: Robert Rodriguez
Overview of Lab Comments: Short but very thinking intensive lab. I think the cup exercise at the beginning of lab is a great way to think about the algorithms and then spend the majority of the class time for implementation.
Janice Chui
The lab is clear in showing what it wants the student to think about. The explicit steps are helpful in guiding the students.
Your Name: Emily Pedersen
Overview of Lab Comments: When I was a student, I definitely found this to be one of the hardest labs. I found implementing binary search difficult, but I also think the activities before this explain why binary search is fast and efficient. I think it would be helpful to have a solution available for the question about finding a number in a sorted list on the resources page after this lab is completed, so students can verify their answer.
- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: lack of clarity Severity: prevents students from continuing Comments: A lot of students were confused by the lab saying that a sort block was already provided in the control's tab because they couldn't find it or it wasn't a command block.
Your Name: Jiazhen Chen
Overview of Lab Comments: This lab is quite challenging, especially the sorted list part. In all, it gives a nice and clear explanation for binary search and algorithms. For the binary search part, many students can understand the idea in the instruction for finding number in the sorted list. But there's no instruction show that they should do the sorted list block themselves. So many of them stuck when going to the next page and start doing the memoization block. Also, I feel that it's kind of hard for students to start the binary block without any hint or structure given. I personally do this block by setting up three variables and call them min, middle, max, and assign them to be the index(position) of the numbers in the list. I know that it's not the only way to do this block, but I think there should be at least some hint that tell the students to set up three variables, and suggested them to set it to the index or the number. Otherwise, the students can be really lost if they didn't understand the binary search completely.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&course=cs10_sp15.html&noassignment&noreading&novideo Type of Issue: lack of clarity Severity: prevents students from continuing Comments: There's no instruction for students to fill in the sorted list block, which prevents them from continuing on in the next pages.
Your Name: Daniel Duazo
Overview of Lab Comments: At first the lab seems short, but creating the search block takes up most of the time. It is well paced and easy to understand. The pie analogy is a good explanation for algorithms.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: Lots of text Severity: i.e. "minor inconvenience" Comments: There isn't actually anything wrong with this page. However, I think it would have been better if it was broken up into different pages to make it easier to digest.
- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/improving-our-number-finder.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: lack of clarity Severity:"minor inconvenience" Comments: I think another example of memoization and how it can be applied would be a good addition to help clear up some questions students may have.
Your Name: Rami Shahatit
Overview of Lab Comments: I really like the description of what an algorithm is in the beginning of this lab. it really helps my understanding throughout the rest of it. I like the break from all the pictures of snap. granted there were some but as usual they were helpful.
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- [ ] Page Link: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/labs/cur/programming/algorithms/algorithms-in-snap.html?topic=berkeley_bjc%2Fareas%2Falgorithms.topic&novideo&noreading&noassingment&course=cs10_sp15.html Type of Issue: clarity Severity: minor Comments: I am not sure if many students tried to do the "flying higher thing" but i think it needs a little more explanation. I was a little confused as to how to make it "fly higher".
