Integrated View at the MTCS Course Organization: The Case of Recursion - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 229

Activity 96: Using Colors and Music for the Examination of Recursive Structures
• Stage A: Musical demonstration
• The instructor of the MTCS course executes a program that draws a binary
tree. The program plays also a unique tone for each level (e.g., C (Do) for
level 1, D (Re) for level 2, and so on). During the first illustration, the stu-
dents are asked just to watch the program execution. During the second illus-
tration, they are asked to close their eyes, listen to the music, and imagine the
drawing of the tree according to the music. The same process can be carried
out for a fractal drawing. (See Eglash et al. 2011 , for an interesting use of
fractal simulations of African design in a high school computing class).
• Stage B: Lab work
• The students work on the activity presented in Table 12.5 .
Table 12.5 Student worksheet on recursion in colors
Worksheet—recursion with colors and music
Write a Java program that draws a binary tree.
Color each level of the tree with a different color.
Add music to each level.
Optional: Draw a fruit or a flower at the end of each branch of the tree.
The following picture is a colored binary tree of level 5.
• Stage C: Class discussion
• After the students complete their lab work, it is recommended to facilitate
a class discussion that addresses the following issues:
− What recursive aspects/ideas/perspectives can be learnt based on the
tree activity?
− How can colors and music enhance learners' understanding of recur-
sion, if at all?
− Why do musical differences between trees and fractals exist? What do
these differences tell us about their recursive structure and about recur-
sion in general?