Authentic object modeling in the early computer science curriculum using objektgraph.

ABSTRACTThe most fundamental concepts of CS involve modeling: represent some aspect of the world in a suitable model, manipulate the model to reason about the world, transform the model instance to reflect events in the world, and interpret the model to determine its meaning. An authentic object-oriented model derives meaning from associations, not only attributes. Unfortunately, authentic object-oriented modeling is not employed early, if employed at all, perhaps because of limited language support for associations. The proposed curriculum and tool bring authentic object-oriented modeling and implementation to the front of the curriculum, often the first experience. By completion of the curricular unit, the student will have developed sophisticated applications with graphical user interfaces, and will come to value, be motivated toward, and have a context in which to place, subsequent object-oriented topics in a curriculum.