2D Arrays

This week, we took our first few steps into the research course and learned a few things about how research is conducted. It was interesting to see exactly where Caltech ranked in the national and world ranking system. I am very excited to begin studying research at one of the top research universities in the world!

For our first assignment, the class was paired up and each group was assigned a foundational topic in computer science to study. My group is studying 2D arrays and how computer scientists use them to manipulate data. We started by looking up some Youtube videos on the topic and after a few confusing ones, we found this one created by Dave Feinberg that was extremely clear and had a cool black background that I enjoyed.



After completing a "Concept Map" and corresponding "Glossary", we are also asked to construct a lesson we are to deliver in the class. This lesson is a bit different than a traditional one in that we must involve the class in the lesson to get the concept across to all the students.

The research and filling out the "Concept Map" wasn't very difficult, but my group had an issue creating a lesson that involved the class. We just couldn't think of any good ideas for our topic. After wrestling with the assignment for several days, my partner suggest that we bring in a "Connect Four" board game and have the left side of the class be assigned the red chips and the right side assigned the black chips.

To explain the way that a 2D array is iterated through using a nested for-loop, we brought in two large mirrors and used them to reflect the board upside down. We told the class that we were going to play a special game in which we would start with the first player dropping their chip in the leftmost spot and the next player in the spot to the right of the last chip.

We let the class know that the same way that they see the chips falling into the board is the same way that a nested for-loop is iterated through when using a row major configuration. Elements in the array are considered left to right and top down.

Lastly, we were also asked to create a screen capture video presenting our findings using images and screen capture software. The end result is basically our class presentation in video form. This is bit embarrassing as we hate to hear our voices played back, but here is our presentation video: