A drawing program for teaching computer science II students

Students in the introductory computer science classes are usually given relatively small programs that help the students learn new concepts covered in class. The students need to focus on the new material and giving them a large project is counter-productive to them learning the important concepts. I wanted to challenge the students in our second computer science course by giving them a large project without overwhelming them. To accomplish this I gave them a project that was accomplished in various stages throughout the semester. This paper discusses the various stages of the project and how they fit together so at the end of the semester the students had a large comprehensive project. Also, I wanted a project the students would be excited about doing. A drawing project that allowed the user of the program to draw lines, rectangles, ovals, text, and free hand lines with various colors and having the option to fill or not fill closed objects was selected. The finished project covered the following topics from the second computer science class: graphical interface design, event handling, color control, arrays, inheritance, polymorphism and singly linked list. The students were challenged for this project and enjoyed the finish product.