Skip to main content
CS Teaching Tips

Main navigation

  • Browse All Tips
  • Tags
  • 3D
  • About
  • Rate Tips
  • Tip Sheets

Use the analogy of carrying weights to teach students about how the amount of memory being used affects runtime.

Share Use the analogy of carrying weights to teach students about how the amount of memory being used affects runtime. with FacebookShare Use the analogy of carrying weights to teach students about how the amount of memory being used affects runtime. with Twitter
  • For instance, imagine asking the student to carry many backpacks. Then ask the student to write a note while carrying all of those backpacks.
  • How difficult the above task is shows why it is difficult for the computer to balance many tasks at once given a finite amount of memory.

More about this tip

Tags

  • Algorithms and Design
External Source

Interview with Susan Scarbrough

Other Tips By
Other Tips By Susan Scarbrough

Similar tips

Have students try to find John Smith in n cities when teaching web development to help students understand the importance and hierarchy of file structure through narrowing down search locations.
Use the model of Towers of Hanoi in order to help students understand recursion. To demonstrate Towers of Hanoi, use three baby ring-stacking toys and the programming language Alice.
Teach the concept of a variable’s scope in Scratch by explaining the difference between “For this sprite only” and “For all sprites.”
  • CSTT Facebook
  • CSTT Twitter

For more information or to report a bug, contact us at admin@csteachingtips.org. Built with Bootstrap. Footer Icons by Mohammed Alyousfi. Powered by Drupal.

Privacy Policy

  • National Science Foundation
  • Sage Fox Group
  • Harvey Mudd College