“Students can enter our 101 course, and if they have no experience, they’re good to go,” Associate Professor of Computer Science Darren Strash explained. “If they have lots of experience, they’re also good to go.”
Darren Strash
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Faculty Bio
The department has already seen the impact of this overhaul. “We have a lot of students now who have never taken a computer science course before coming to Hamilton. They take 101 and they realize, wow, this is for me,” Strash added.
Once through the introductory courses, the upper-level courses become a proving ground for students. However, the department’s alignment with the liberal arts doesn’t falter. Nowhere is this more evident than in Comp Sci 240: Computer Organization and Assembly Language.
“240 is a fundamental course where you learn how a computer works,” Strash explained. “However, writing programs for a text-based terminal — the same way you would do in your other courses — is not always motivating for students.”
“We have a lot of students now who have never taken a computer science course before coming to Hamilton. They take 101 and they realize, wow, this is for me.”
The solution? Since fall 2024, students have been learning programming fundamentals through a very different approach: Nintendo Game Boys. Throughout the semester, students hone assembly language skills by building a fully functional Game Boy game with a partner. (Nintendo®, and Game Boy®, are registered trademarks owned by Nintendo of America, Inc.)
“Assembly is not an easy language to learn by any means,” said Jack Kertscher ’26, who built a survival game called Crypt. “It was really difficult, but I found that doing it in a self-driven way was really great.”
Students move step by step through the game development process: first learning to display their graphics, then getting their characters to move, and finally building game objectives and interactions. “We ended up with a really cool product at the end, which was a game that we could show off,” Kertscher said. With a background in robotics, Kertscher moved through the course as a very technical, hands-on learner. But the beauty of 240 is that all types of learners can succeed.
For Jules Henderson ’25, a computer science and theatre double major, the creative possibilities were endless. “I’m a much more visual learner than a conceptual learner,” she said. “I love to code, but I really love to code creatively.” Henderson and her partner divided and conquered: Henderson focused on her game’s interactive graphics while her partner focused on its technical details.
“I was definitely challenged technically, but I was still being stimulated creatively,” she recalled. Henderson attributes this creative freedom to Strash. “Professor Strash was really lovely in that he lets you go free-range on the creative side, which drives you to take on bigger and harder projects.”
“Professor Strash was really lovely in that he lets you go free-range on the creative side, which drives you to take on bigger and harder projects.”
Henderson went the extra mile by converting her game into Game Boy Color. She wasn’t required to do so but was so invested in her game that she wanted to. “It took a lot of work, but I was just so excited about it. I wanted to spend hours and hours outside of class to finish it.”
The creative nature of the course was on full display when students presented their games to the campus community this spring. There were music games, puzzle games, survival games, mystery games, the list went on. Watching his students enthusiastically share their games with each other, Strash couldn’t have been more proud.
“It makes me very happy,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for students of all mindsets to get a lot out of the class. It’s very emblematic of the learning environment that Hamilton offers.”
