[Year 12 SofDev] When is enough enough? Data structures depth of knowledge required.[y12]

[Mark Kelly]

Hi Andrew.

The structures you mention (and don't forget the multi-dimensional 
array!) are all quite reasonable for a kid to know, IMHO, especially how 
they can be used to implement basic algorithms (such as 
sorting/searching).  Of course, some kids will struggle with the 
concepts if they're not introduced carefully.

I also covered GUI structures like listboxes, controls arrays (in VB) 
since students often use them as quick and dirty surrogates for 
structure primitives.

Cheers
Mark

Dr Andrew Wenn wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Could someone please advise on how much knowledge VCE students are required to have of data structures?
> 
> Looking at the two main texts there is a fair difference for example in the discussion of linked lists in terms of implementation and algorithms. I find the Study Guide even more vague (now why does that suprise me????)
> 
> Obviously students should have an appreciation of structures such as the array, queue, stack, linked list and trees and when and why they would be used.
> 
> It would be easy to for me to teach six months of data structures and implementation but what amounts to enough knowledge? Are students expected to know insertion and deletion algorithms for linked lists or even how to traverse a tree or a list? 
> 
> All answers to be supplied on the back of a table napkin pls :-)
> 
> Andrew Wenn
> Gippsland Grammar
> 


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Mark Kelly
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