Pedagogical Pattern #50
Lay of the Land Pattern
(Version 1.2, October 1998)
Contributed by:
Joseph Bergin
Pace University
One Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038 USA
berginf@pace.edu
NAME:
Lay of the Land
THUMBNAIL:
Students are given some early experience in examining a large artifact, beyond their ability to produce, with the intent of showing them the complexity of the field they are about to study.
AUDIENCE/ CONTEXT:
This has very wide applicability to almost every domain. It is especially useful in teaching topics with a lot of parts that must fit together in certain ways. Teaching programming is one example. Teaching design methodology is another.
FORCES:
Teaching is often incremental, with topics introduced one after the other.
Students need to see the big picture too, as well as the detail.
Early on, they can produce only simple artifacts, but they can examine, if only in a superficial way, a complex artifact.
Seeing the big picture can give them motivation for the study of the parts as they have an idea of how they might be used.
SOLUTION:
Students are given a large artifact to examine early in the course. They can see what it is that they are supposed to be about in that course and what kinds of things they will be expected to master.
The artifact has about the complexity of the thing you would like them to be able to produce at its end. Time is spent examining the parts and their interactions. Time can be spent on trade-offs inherent in the design or not, but the notion of design tradeoffs should be mentioned at least. The artifact should include most of the elements that are the proper study for that course. It is good if the artifact have some subtle points. If questions arise initially on these points they may be deferred, but it may mean you have better students than you think. The artifact can be returned to throughout the course and the subtle points revealed and discussed.
DISCUSSION/ CONSEQUENCES/ IMPLEMENTATION:
Students get to see a target for their study. They also have a model on which they can base their own work.
The artifact must be prepared ahead of time. Student projects from prior years are a good source, though they may need to be modified somewhat to emphasize points the instructor believes most important. If these are large, a good way to transmit them to students is via the Internet, especially the Web. This way other educators can use them also.
SPECIAL RESOURCES:
Good solutions to larger projects are needed. These must exhibit excellent structure and style, as we are hoping that the structure and style will be emulated by the students.
RELATED PATTERNS:
- One of these could easily be Larger Than Life.
- A Spiral could be used to examine parts of the artifact on successive cycles. This is especially true if the parts are tightly coupled.
- The artifact could also be a Fixer Upper.
- If chosen carefully, it is also an Early Bird.
- Test Tube can be used to let the students answer their own questions about the artifact.
See Also: Fixer Upper, Spiral, Mistake, Early Bird, Toy Box, Tool Box, Lay of the Land, Test Tube and Larger Than Life as a pattern language.
EXAMPLE INSTANCES:
A large Object-Oriented program with a few classes interacting in an interesting way is a good choice in a first programming course using an object-oriented language. A complete design with many documents can be used in a systems design course. A complex database design with entity relationship charts and tables can be used in a database design course.
Some compiler course instructors give the students a complete compiler for one language and then ask them to provided a compiler for another over the course of the term.