CSC 216/BeanExceptions

Game: Bean Exceptions

by Max Gallagher and Patrick Finegan.

Purpose

This excercise is to help a class more actively participate in learning about throwing and catching exceptions.

Setup

A team is 6-9 people (or one row). In the team there is one "catcher" and the rest are "staff."

The catcher for each team goes and stands in the front of the room with the other catchers. The staff stays in their seats. The staff will be handed different colored (and possibily numbered) bean bags.

The different colored beanbags will represent common exceptions (NullPointerException(), ArrayIndexOutOfBounds(), etc...). On the screen will be a powerpoint presentation with different scenarios where exceptions would be thrown and caught.

The Game

For each scenario the staff throw beanbags to the front where the catchers catch these exceptions/bean bags. (It is suggested that all laptops be removed from deskspace for this activity)

The job of the staff is to throw the correct beanbag. The job of the catcher is catch the correct beanbag. The catchers does not neccesarily have to catch the beanbag thrown by his team.

A beanbag counts as thrown when it has left a staff members hands is headed to the front of the room.

A beanbag counts as caught if the catcher is still holding the beanbag when the time to tally scores is called.

After 10 seconds of bean bag filled chaos, the scores are tallyed.

Scoring

1 Point will be awarded for the correct beanbag thrown by the staff. 1 Point will be awarded for the correct beanbag caught by the catcher. 0 Points will be awarded for uncaught/unthrown exceptions. -1 Points will be deducted for incorrectly thrown beanbags. -1 Points will be deducted for incorrectly caught beanbags.

Victory

The team that scores the most points will win a delicious cake.