The aim of programming projects in CS1/CS2 is to put in practice concepts and techniques learnt during lectures. Programming projects serve a dual purpose: first, the students get to practice the programming concepts taught in class, and second, they are introduced to an array of topics that they will cover later in their computer science education.In this work, we present programming projects we have successfully used in CS1/CS2. These topics have added breadth to CS1/CS2 as well as whetted our students' appetite by exposing them to concurrent programming, event-driven programming, graphics management and human-computer interfaces, data compression, image processing and genetic algorithms.We also include the background material, such as tools and libraries we have provided our students to render the more difficult projects amenable to our introductory computer science classes.

This paper presents an overview of visualization in Computer Science instruction.It is broken down in the following fashion. First, we present the motivation for using visualization and visual techniques in instruction. This is followed by a discussion of when the use of visualization is most appropriate.We then consider a broad spectrum of uses of visualization in Computer Science instruction.This spectrum is organized from passive to active in terms of a student's involvement with the visualization tools. Types of visualizations are then categorized.

Visualization has long been an important pedagogical tool in CS education. The widespread use of the Web and the introduction of Java, with its ability to present interactive animated applets and other types of animation, all provide opportunities to expand the availability of visualization-based teaching and learning tools. In addition, the Web introduces new opportunities not available in traditional settings.We start by identifying the types of learning objectives that can be supported by visualizations and the Web environment. Next we look at specific areas where the use of the Web enhances learning beyond the usual visualization, as well as at new learning and teaching paradigms supported by the Web. We then discuss a number of different mechanisms that can be used to deliver visualizations over the Web and new ways of managing displays in the Web-based environment. We point out both advantages and disadvantages of using the Web. A look into the future follows. We consider what changes and improvements we can expect and what specific activities we would like the CS community to undertake. We end with a brief survey of currently available Web-based visualization teaching tools and a commitment to maintain a list of links to these and other sites.