Project Goals Required Skills Lab Repository Related Papers Collaborators Feedback
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| Integrating Empirical Methods into Computer Science | |
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Project Goals Required Skills Lab Repository Related Papers Collaborators Feedback |
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Empirical Lab RepositoryTitle: Experimentation with Word Frequencies Author: Dave Reed, Creighton University, davereed@creighton.edu Possible Courses: CS0, CS1 Empirical Concepts Introduced: Monte Carlo Methods, expected values, consistency, accuracy Computer Science Concepts Used: computer-based simulation Summary:
This assignment uses an interactive Web page (containing JavaScript code) to
introduce the concept of
Monte Carlo methods. Using the existing Web page, students are led through a
series of experiments to generate random letter sequences and count the number of
English words obtained. From this data, they are asked to estimate the number of
English words with certain characteristics. Accuracy, consistency, and the Law of
Large numbers are all implicitly introduced in this lab (although not named as
such).
Variations: If desired, an instructor could use the idea for this assignment later in a programming course. Instead of providing the Web page with the JavaScript code, the instructor could assign the task of generating the letter sequences. Such a program is relatively short and simple, involving repetition, string concatenation, and random selection. A further extension might involve comparing the generated sequences against an online dictionary to remove the need for human intervention.
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