Objective: Students will learn about inheritance in object-oriented programming (OOP) using shapes as an example. They'll understand how inheritance allows for code reuse and the creation of more complex structures from simpler ones.
Why It’s Important: Understanding inheritance is fundamental to writing efficient and maintainable code. It helps in creating hierarchical relationships and promoting code reuse, which is crucial in managing large codebases.
2. What Students Will Learn
Concept of Inheritance: Definition and purpose of inheritance in OOP.
Base and Derived Classes: How to create base classes and derive new classes from them.
Polymorphism: How inherited methods can be overridden to provide specific functionality.
Practical Application: Implementing shapes (e.g., Circle, Rectangle) using inheritance to demonstrate the concept.
3. Why We Want to Learn It First
Foundational Knowledge: Inheritance is a core concept in OOP and understanding it early will make it easier to grasp more advanced topics like polymorphism and abstract classes later on.
Code Efficiency: Learning how to use inheritance can simplify code and make it more modular and easier to maintain, which is essential as projects grow.
4. Engagement and Hands-On Learning
Interactive Examples: Start with a live coding demonstration of creating a basic Shape class and then derive Circle and Rectangle classes from it. Show how methods and attributes are inherited and overridden.
Hands-On Exercise: Have students implement their own shape classes based on a given base class. They can choose different shapes and implement methods specific to those shapes (e.g., area calculation).
Lesson Plan: Unit 9 - Inheritance and Shapes
1. Introduction
2. What Students Will Learn
3. Why We Want to Learn It First
4. Engagement and Hands-On Learning
Shapeclass and then deriveCircleandRectangleclasses from it. Show how methods and attributes are inherited and overridden.