Teaching Students Java']Java Bytecode Using Lego Mindstorms Robots

Assembly language is a valuable subject to teach, yet one of the most underappreciated by students. Students do not see the need for assembly language and they get through it as quickly as possible. Given the time in a computer organization course to teach assembly language, assignments - either quick-and-easy ones or those contrived-to-teach-a-point - contribute to this attitude of malaise. This paper documents a project to inject some fun into the teaching of assembly language. First, we switch the language to Java bytecode. Second, we use unique assignments to use Java bytecode with Lego Mindstorms robotics.