Abstract: In this talk, I will talk about my experience designing courses centered around projects, giving students ample opportunity to apply and gain experience with lecture topics. I will focus the discussion on the most recent course I have taught -- Programming in C++. This class followed a flipped classroom model, where students read the lecture material before coming to class, and I live-coded examples with them as a starting point for questions and more in-depth discussions. After covering a set of topics, students worked on week-long projects applying concepts they learned in contextualized scenarios. The proposed projects connect lecture concepts to the real world, showing students why they might implement a project like that. These projects also require students to find a few implementation-specific things through documentation and StackOverflow, instead of being given all the sample code they might need. Finally, I will discuss how I tie projects and quizzes together to give students the tools they'll need to succeed in future courses and industry.

Short Bio: Caio Batista de Melo is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Before joining UCI, Caio received his BS and MS in Computer Science from the University of Brasilia in Brazil. His interests span various areas, including CS education, reliable systems, and software engineering. At UCI, Caio has served as the instructor of record for upper- and lower-division courses and has extensive experience as a teaching assistant. His teaching has been recognized by multiple awards and certificates at UCI.