Day 154: Create Your Own Critter

Today, my AP Computer Science students began their final exam. While they were working through the multiple choice, I was reviewing their Create Your Own Critter lab and providing feedback. The lab is the summative lab for the GridWorld Case Study unit and has the following requirements:

Create your own critter which inherits from Critter. Be creative and think of some other things your critter can do that we haven’t done. You need to:

  • find a small gif file that looks like your critter – approximately 48×48 pixels and put it in your folder with your source file (must name it the same as your class)
  • have the new critter move differently from a Critter and/or
  • have the new critter eat or leave different things that the Critter doesn’t do and/or
  • have the critter do other things
  • your critter must override at least three of the five methods in the act method or you must have 2 classes (critter with another critter or actor) where there is at least two overridden methods in each. Do not override the act method.
  • add comments in your code (JavaDoc-style)
  • type up a full description of your Critter(s) in the README.txt file that is part of your BlueJ project and make sure it is submitted in your zipped project folder; the description should completely describe the behavior of your critter
  • write a runner class to demonstrate your critter and its behavior
  • submit a single zip file that contains the BlueJ project folder with the BlueJ package file and all source files

I love it when students go well beyond the requirements and create something amazing that is either really creative or challenges them. One student incorporated a shortest path finding algorithm into her lab!

  ##gridworld ##apcs  

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