Construction of a Flexible Data Structures Laboratory

Abstract

In a computer science curriculum, the data structures course is considered fundamental. In that course, students must generate the ability to desingn the more suitable data structures for a problem solution. They must also write an efficient algorithm in order to solve the problem. Students must understand that there are different types of data structures, each of them with associated algorithms of different complexity. A data structures laboratory is a set of computional tools that helps students in the experimentation with the concepts introduced in the curse. The main objetive of this experimentation is to generate the student's needed abilities for manipulating complex data structure. This paper presents the main characteristics of the laboratory built as a sopport of the course. we illustrate the huge possibilities of the tool with an example.