Linked List Game
Props: 5 or 6 large cards representing the
information stored in a node. Use characters or something
fitting to the season, such as pictures of
easter eggs. A yellow Post-it.
Description:
Ask for a volunteer (or pick the guy that makes the most noise
in class, usually this is a person who wants attention)
to come up front. He is our anchor variable and gets a name
assigned by having a post-it stuck on him somewhere.
Ask him to hold his left hand in the air - a dangling
pointer if there ever was one! Now have another volunteer or
the second most loud person come up. Give them a card - this is
the node information. Have the anchor point to this NEW person.
Where's the Null pointer now? Continue for a few more persons,
until they have the idea.
Insert a node between two nodes to give them an idea of the
algorithm involved in this operation.
This exercise gives the students an excellent opportunity to
discuss pointers, even if they have not yet learned to use
words like pointer and pointer object correctly. One student
once asked after the game the next week: if I am pointing to my
friend, can someone else point to him at the same time?
And we launched a great conversation on the difference between
pointers and objects, multiple references, dangling
pointers etc. They had the vocabulary and a structure in
mind, and could work with them!