Sam Dooley 7Jun2023 Course Number: 79322233
Introduction: In CS143 I struggled a lot more than in CS142 and I beleive this is because this class focuses a little more on thinking outside of the box. By that I mean this course seems more focused on combining some aspects of what we have learned before to overcome problems, whereas before it was more of learning the basics and applying one concept at a time. While giving us more ways to solve a problem may seem like a good thing, I find it can also be intimidating because you have so many possible solutions to think through. Just because something is intimidating doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing though, and I think this class really helped me grow by expanding my creative thinking and problem-solving skills alongside learning to write code more effectively.
Please see my folders for code and reflections on learning objectives, then return for the conclusion.
Conclusion: Going into this class I thought it was going to be more of the same. Read through the assigned modules and do the activities, then do the labs and be done. But this class was not like that, I had to spend a much larger amount of time doing the labs because of how much I struggled with them. I had to stop watching the recorded lectures at 1.5 times speed because I needed them slowed down to fully understand the information that was being given to me. I struggled through this class, but I think better for it because I learned so much from it. What I learned was not just Java, but how to effectively code. This reminds me of something that one of our guest speakers said during a computing club meeting that really stuck with me which was along the lines of “Don’t worry about the languages, learn how to program.” I think this great advice that I took to heart because it just makes so much sense. I’m not just here to learn how to write Java, I’m here to learn how to write programs. Learning Java is just a byproduct of that.