Make up day! Everything due by the end of the day today!

If you have anything missing it will need to be turned in today by the end of the day.  My suggestion is to double check all of your quiz grades and make sure you arent missing any of those; I would also suggest looking to see if you are missing the Thanksgiving blog post (if this is missing send me an email with a link to your blog).  Lastly, the crossword puzzles are probably the next easiest to complete.  I mention those because they are easy to complete and should give you some quick points.

Beyond those two assignments if you have missing formatting activities that are partially completed you could take time today to get more of it done and then hand it in at the end of the hour.  Remember...some points is better than no points!

Tomorrow and Friday we will finish our bracket challenge!  If you are in first, second, or third hours I will not be here and the sub will be guiding you through the bracket competition.

Read More..

CS Principles Bookshelf

One of the things I get asked most often about the pilot is "What textbook are you using?" In reality limiting the course to one book isnt possible. Part of the whole point of the curriculum is broadening the focus beyond just teaching coding.

Also, computer science is by its very nature is not static. Having a great set of reference books to work from has been essential this past year.

These three were my main resources:

• Computer Science: An Overview by J. Glenn Brookshear
• This book did a good job of covering the basics, plus it covered some other areas like artificial intelligence and computer graphics.
• Computer Science Illuminated by Nell Dale and John Lewis
• This one takes a layered approach starting with the information layer of how data is stored and processed and then moved up through applications. Each chapter had a good set of thought questions, beyond just simple vocabulary and multiple choice, that related to the topics covered.
• Explorations In Computer Science by Mark Meyer
• This books takes a laboratory approach with a series of hands on applets. Great for brainstorming how to approach a topic.

Some other books I used. If you havent guessed I am a huge reader, so this is just the tip of the iceberg.

• Introduction to Computational Science by Angela B. Shiflet and George W. Shiflet-
• This book was new to me this year. One of the hardest areas to teach with the CS Principles course was Large Datasets. While the book is over the head of your average high school student, it is a fabulous resource for teachers. It is all about how computers are used in modeling and simulation and has an entire module on errors in modeling. Each topic covered has several case studies that range from Drug Dosage to Skydiving to Mushroom Fairy Rings. Great examples to pull from.
•  Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold
• This covers the first steps of representing data as a code - like Morse code all the way through graphics. It is clear and easy to follow with fun examples. It is a it a level high school students could follow most of it, although some passages get a little more mathy than most students are comfortable with. This is one of the books I came back to again and again.
• The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh
• This is one of my all time favorites. His website also has lots of great interactive tools for teaching on this topic. I have used the digital version in class for several years. I also have developed a set of  hands-on cryptography activities whenever the network is down at school-like Caesar sticks and Morse code.  Understanding some of the history of how humans used encryption to send messages makes the abstraction of computer science easier to understand

Read More..

Printing in 3D

Our new 3-D Printer:

Bits and Pieces

The computer club kids have been working all year to raise the money for our new 3-D Printer. They bought it from Printrbot. They offer a $150 teacher discount, which helps.

Hopefully it starts looking like this by Friday:

I have been working over the past year to build the lab into a hacker space. We have programmable sewing machines, screen printer, button maker and now the printer. It has created a lot of excitement around the computer science program here and brings a lot of kids into the lab.

Is this computer science? Maybe. Computer Science folks never question having robots in the lab, and frankly the amount of "coding" that goes into the embroidery sewing machine or the other stuff is about the same as many simple robots like the Finch (with Snap).

For me it builds a culture of creating and crafting, with coding at the core, and that is enough.

Read More..

Copy vs Cut and paste Extension Learn 5 7 3 6 and 2

COPY AND PASTE VS. CUT AND PASTE
EXTENSION

Numbers:

5 - L1 (reach from F to 5)
7 - R1 (reach from J to 7)
3 - L2 (reach from D to 3)
6 - R1 (reach from J to 6 - the longest reach on the keyboard!)
2 - L3 (reach from S to 2)

To warmup we will start with typing on page 31, 14A, lines 1-3 once.

P. 31, 14B, lines 1-4 twice
P. 32, 14C, lines 1-6 once
P. 32, 14D, lines 1-8 twice

Read More..

Mind Mapping the AP Computer Science Exam

This year we tried something different for teh final APCS exam review. Weve been doing multiple choice and free response problems for weeks now, and really we are at the point where they either know it or they dont.

So what I want is for them to remember all the connections - those picky details that can make a huge difference. Like when do you use == and when the .equals? Or when to use super vs this.

So I gave them a list of terms from the APCS curriculum (see below) and I had them cut them out to make a mind map. They had to draw and explain the connections. They worked in groups on this and there was a lot of great discussion today as they debated where the pieces fit together.

The list isnt complete - I keep remembering things I left off. The kids found most of those as they built their maps.

.length() .move .random .remove .size() .turn ++ = = abstract accessor Actor array 1-D array 2-D base case boolean Bug class Color

concatenation constructor Critter double extends Flower for for-each if implements int interface List Location Math method mutator new

Object object overload override parameter primitive private public recursion return Rock row major toString void

Read More..