So why do we need CS Principles

I have been asked a lot this past year about why CS Principles is being developed.

Even though computer science is all about change, and the changes in our field seem to zoom by at lightning speed, there are some core ideas and well, principles, that are central to understanding how they work.

For those of us in the AP Computer Science community we do a great job of delivering computer science education. We all can point to students we have launched into the world. These students have overcome obstacles and are working and creating jobs in all sorts of places.

Sadly, this is not enough.

The existing computer science curriculum in K-12 schools does a good job for the few students it reaches, but what about everyone else? Think about where you are....how many schools around you have computer science? How many students in those schools have access to the classes?

Really, how many kids in your community even know what computer science is?

For me it is a question of literacy. To be a productive person you must be literate in the tools society is using to drive change. For that past few centuries this meant reading and writing. While these skills are still necessary for students, understanding computers and technology has become the new marker of literacy.

Simply put, anyone that does not have a foundation in computer science will not be as prepared for the changes to come.

This does not mean that every student needs to master computer science. There will always be a need for a core group of programmers that have reached a master level of understanding. These are the people that, to quote Virginia Tech, invent the future. We need more of these people. We also need these people to reflect the needs of the larger community they serve through their innovation.

And for everyone else? The computer is the tool of the future. We communicate, learn, work create...all with computing devices. To use them well means understanding some fundamental things about how they work and what they can, and cannot, do.

Think about Mr. Rodgers - "these are the people in your neighborhood". How many of them could do their job without a computer? How much of their daily life outside of work- communicating, playing, making, could happen without a computer?

Often in media computers are presented as magic. The character pushes a button and poof - the problem is solved. Those of us in CS know this is just slight of hand. Behind the scenes someone created a tool on a computer to solve the problem.

So this is why we need the CS Principles course. Every student in America needs a rigorous preparation for their future. That preparation must include computer science. Without access to computer science we run the risk innovation looking like magic, only available to those that know the trick.

Last week the CS Principles Phase II piloters met in Chicago. This is a great group of folks working hard to design the curriculum for this new computer science course. I have been so lucky this year to be a part of this community. It has been tiring, frustrating, humbling...and all totally worth it.  Hopefully after this year we have all pushed the rock a bit farther up the hill.

Everything you need to know about CS Principles. This page has all the documents that frame the course. One easy place for all the information.

Take a look, ask some questions. It is time for us as a community to really start the conversation on making the change happen.

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Vocabulary Internet Safety

After watching the video on some of the vocabulary words, please continue working on your Internet Safety project.

One caution I would highlight - we seem to be having issues with students who are using Chrome.  Usually what happens is there is a window that pops up asking you to allow or deny something regarding GoAnimate!...and then you are unable to choose either (in other words your computer basically locks up).  So, I highly recommend that you choose to use either Firefox or Safari in order to avoid that happening.  When this does happen you will not be able to save your information - Im sure youd hate to do 30 minutes of work only to have it not save because this window pops up.

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What Holds Girls Back from Computer Science an update

A few weeks back I blogged about an infograpfic that was making the rounds.

I am so happy to say that the infographic has been updated:

Better, no?

I am so glad to see the update. Gone is the one of blame and the factual errors about the APCS exam. The whole tone reflects their stated purpose of "Teach Girls To Program Before People Tell Them They Cant Do It". Great approach.

I really love that they now include information on stereotype threat. Joanne Cohoon at UVA has done a lot of great work on this as it relates to females in computer science. It is her research at NCWIT the reference at the bottom.? And while we are at it, have you been to a Tapestry Workshop? If not put it on your list for next summer, absolutely will change your teaching. Resources from past workshops are posted on the site, so you can read ahead,

Well done!

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Writing in the Computer Science Classroom

So, you think you are not an English teacher? Guess again.

Disneys Paperman 

This is a good article about the new Disney short film Paperman.  Well be using this article as a prompt in the CS Principles class this week. In making the short Disney combined traditional hand drawn animation with the CGU technology with a piece of software called Meander.

For the CS Principles Pilot this year the focus is on assessment - how will Collegeboard test the kids at the end of the year?

One major change from the existing AP Computer Science course is the addition of written portfolio items. You can preview them here under Prototype Items. Students are asked to write to demonstrate learning in the CS Principles class.

The best way to prepare for a written assessment is to write, go figure. So though out the course I have the students respond in discussion boards and journals. My goal is once a week. Just like with coding frequent practice leads to mastery.

It has been very interesting to see the students reactions. In the pilot class I have a wide range of abilities. Some are seniors taking mostly IB and AP classes, others might not take a single advanced class while in high school. From all the computer science teachers I talk to this is pretty typical. It means that we cannot make assumptions about the students writing levels.

One thing I learned last year was I had to be very explicit about what academic writing should look like. While they have all written English papers, it doesnt always occur to them that rules like "write in full sentences" apply in the computer science class.

We finished up the first Portfolio papers right before winter break. Since the Internet Unplugged is the second unit I cover int he course we did the Internet Portfolio paper. Well be doing the ones on data and programming over the next two months.

Ill summarize more about the Internet Portfolio papers and the experience of working on them with the kids later. Right now I am just trying to come up with enough interesting discussion board topics to keep them writing until the next round.

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Formatting Activity 4

Today we are going to learn how to set tabs in Word.  After explaining the process for setting tabs you will be working on the formatting activity, which is embedded below.


Activity 4Activity 4

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Apple dominate market Samsung is on two

According the latest study IDC , Apple returned at  share 68% of global market of tablette in the second quarter of 2012 .Samsung is the second ,exceeding Amazon , and on place four is Asus . The top is completed of Acer .

Apple managed on second quarter to sell 17 million of tablette iPad at worldwide . Samsung , with all versions of Galaxy Tab ,sold only 2,4 million units , while Amazon , which has in portfolio only Kindle Fire with screen of 7 inch about 1,25 million. Asus exceeded 855.000 of units sold , and Acer only 385.000 . IDC does not give figures for other manufacturers .

Company analysis estimated sales of tablette at 25 of million units . Growth is of 66,4% comparative with second quarter of 2011

http://blog-de-filme-online.blogspot.ro

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Crossword Puzzle Learn apostrophe hyphen and quotation marks

Today you will be receiving a crossword puzzle that will be due this Friday.  This crossword puzzle contains vocab words from vocab lists 1 through 3.  This is a homework assignment - you will not receive class time to complete this.  Additionally, you are welcome to turn this in anytime before Friday, but it must be turned in no later than Friday to earn full credit.

Today we are going to learn 3 new symbols on the keyboard, but youll only be learning 2 new keys.  The apostrophe (R4), the hyphen (R4), and the quotation marks (Left Shift + R4) are the new symbols.  As you will notice from above, you also will be using your right little finger on all three of these symbols - its going to get a workout today!

Just to give you an idea of where we are going - tomorrow we are going to start our Internet Safety unit.  When we work on Internet Safety you will be working on a website to create a short video.  The website will require a username and password.

After the Internet Safety project we will head back to learning the ten numbers across the top of the keyboard and the symbols on the numbers.  That should get us pretty close to the end of the first 9 weeks of second semester.

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Inserting Clipart into Microsoft Word

Today we are going to learn how to insert Clipart into Word. These are images that come with Word, or you can also find them online. We are going to use these to complete the next formatting activity and will be inserting them into your document.

  Activity 10.pdf

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Celebrate the International Day of teh Girl with

Some Great Computer Science Resources

I just stumbled across the Tech Girls Website, and as they point out Oct 11 is the International Day of the girl.

They have a great list of resources - very complete.

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Vocab Quiz 10 the last one! Pizza menu design work

Today is the last of the vocab quizzes!  As usual you will be given time at the beginning of class to study - do not go to Classmarker until I tell you to do so.

As soon as you complete the quiz you may continue your work on the pizza menu.

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Logic Groups

This year in the Intro to Programming class we are trying logic groups. This past summer Robert Luciano presented this at the UVA Tapestry workshop. Hes also written about it here. This summer he gave several example puzzles which can be found in the zip file on the Tapestry site.

The idea is you put the kids in groups and present them with various logic puzzles. Getting them off the computers and collaborating to solve puzzles helps build problem solving, which is at the core of what we do.

This is our third week with the groups and so far the kids are really enjoying it. I have seen some kids that do not normally get very active with class activities get very involved in the puzzles. We are on a block schedule - so we do it the first time I see them each week, either Monday or Tuesday.

Todays puzzle came from this site: Brain Food  It is #1, the elevator problem.

** Update - this particular puzzle stank. One kid had seen it before, and the rest of the groups got super frustrated. Were going to try again on Wednesday with the latest edition of Bits and Bytes from the NSF. This latest issue has some great puzzles and tie ins with computer science curriculum.

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Google Science Fair Winners

Google just awarded their Science Fair 2012 awards. The grand prize winner was Brittany Wenger from Florida. She won $50,000 scholarship, an internship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Not too shabby.

Her project focused on breast cancer detection. She wrote a program in Java that analyzed large data sets from the cloud looking for patterns.

"For Wenger, one of the highlights of the experience was meeting famed computer scientist Vint Cerf, who talked with her at length about computer science and neural networks."

Googles site also has some materials for teachers interested in the competition.

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HTML ISP and IP addresses

We are going to discuss the difference between ISP and IP addresses first, then we will look at what HTML is.

After covering those vocab words you will have the rest of the hour to work on any assignment that needs to be completed - whether it is for Computer Apps or for another class does not matter.  Ill even give you the option to post your vocab definitions today during class if you didnt get that done.  You will be busy the entire hour.  If you want to play the practice games from the practice websites on the blog that would be great!  But, youll have to do it with your speed skin on your keyboard.

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Google Chrome 21

Google launched final version with the number 21 of Chrome browser . Among improvements most important include support for “Retina Display”
, a white bubble from Apple fans , and some pluses in chapter audio-video and access at system peripherals.

You can find out more from official blog Google Chrome . Update is simple , give on Settings -> About Google Chrome.
http://blog-de-filme-online.blogspot.ro/

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Pizza Menu

You will be given all day today and tomorrow to submit the Pizza Menu assignment - it will be due Friday at the end of the hour.  Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• you should have two pages when you are done
• print the two pages and put in order so yours looks like a pizza menu
• you are NOT required to have a watermark, but it is ok to include one (if you dont know how to do this or havent added one yet I would recommend you dont include it)
• dont forget to include the 6 small graphic images (step 7 of the inside left and right panels)
• youll need to have a border around each different category (step 10 of the inside left and right panels)

When you are done you might want to check to see if you have any missing assignments - if so you need to work to get them done ASAP - they are due tomorrow!  If you do not have any missing assignments you may play the typing games on the blog, work on homework from another class, or read.

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ITBS Week

Because of ITBS testing, I will only be seeing  a few classes in the lab this week. If you are in the following classes, LUCKY YOU!
Mr. Pratt
Ms. Story
Ms. Rancourt
Ms. Robinson
Ms. Thompson
Ms. Hamilton
Ms. Mullinax
Ms. Leclair
Ms. Johnson
Ms. Reisman

How do we use the Internet? Well be finding out in this weeks classes! Well also be using http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/ to practice what weve been learning in Math in unit 1.

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How does Computer Science fit with No Screens Week

You know how we all have that one Facebook friend, the one that is all granolier than thou about everything? I recently got into one of those discussions about kids and screens.

No screen week is April 29 - May 5 this year.

We are not a big TV family. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Germany where we had one channel that showed American soap operas, but totally out of order. So TV was never a big thing for me. I just dont like the passive consumption of that much media, especially for small kids.

We currently do not have cable, and the kids watch in short spurts using Netflix. So we usually celebrate no-screens week at our house by turning of Netflix for a week and spending a few more minutes outside with the chickens.

Some things have changes in the last year. My girls are now 10 and 12. They have Kindle Fires and my oldest saved up this fall to buy her own Chromebook this fall. Technically these are all screens...so what to do?

After much discussion we have decided to draw a line between consuming and creating with technology. No Goodluck Charlie or Webkins, but CodeAcademy is OK. For us the kids are outside running around plenty, so more fresh air really isnt the point.

But is does make me think about the role of computer science in our relationships with screens. For too many kids in our country their entire relationship with screens is a passive one. Really, that is the magic of computer science. Like any art, it takes you from being a consumer of a product and puts you on stage as a creator.

And really, that is the point. With computer science, the screen becomes a tool for expression. There is a huge power in that.

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No peeking

This video was recommended for explaining public-key encryption. It uses ttheidea of mixing paint colors to explain how public key cryptology.

It is part of a series of vidieos from the YouTube channel: Art of the Problem. Heres the full website.

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Video FA6 symbols in Word

Here is todays video on Cache memory:

After watching the video we will discuss how you can insert symbols into a Word document.  Then you will be given time today to work on FA6, which will be due tomorrow.  SPEED SKIN ON YOUR KEYBOARD!

If you get done with FA6 and you did not complete the Alice tutorial from Monday now would be a good time to continue to work on it and get it done.

If you are done with the Alice tutorial you will need to go to the practice websites.

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Top 10 Computer Science Tweets for APCS Principles

APCS Principles has a lot of great places to include articles and news about computer science for student readings. Here is a summary of some of the more interesting ones I have posted on Twitter recently:

• Computer chemists win Nobel Prize - great read for #APCSP, and every guidance department in us high schools
• Breaking Brick Stereotypes: LEGO Unveils a Female Scientist
• Data Unit - Ten Simple Rules for Reproducible Computational Research 
• Data  - Future of Statistics  
• Rage Against the Algorithms 
• Potential for #apcsp? Open auto essay scoring engine from CMU looking for pilot schools 
• First 2 3D printers in Haiti - printing umbilical cord clamps & other medical devices. 
• Simple testing can boost CS education 29% overnight!
• Whats the coders responsibility? Facebook-alpha testing program not for the faint of heart
• Advertisers could track your smartphone through accelerometer, researchers find 
• Every Second on the Internet 
• 
  

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Eighth Week

3rd-5th -Its time to assess our keyboarding skills! After completing a lesson on Type2Learn, we will be visiting sense-lang.org to see how many words correct per minute we can type and compare our results to our first test from September. Im excited to see your progress!

1st -2nd - Weve worked hard learning how to access and navigate Discovery Education, Renzulli Learning, and the grade level blogs. This week we will review these great resources and learn how to save these sites to your favorites at home.

Kindergarten - We are really getting the hang of how to use the mouse and can name several parts of a computer (keyboard, mouse, monitor). We will continue to use the kindergarten blog and explore the list of reading sites. 

All students will be given a cheat sheet of websites. It will be attached to the inside of the front cover of the communication log. Also, their student numbers will be written on the cover. They will use their student numbers for their username and password on Discovery Education and Renzulli Learning.

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Finish FA2 Learn 8 1 9 4 and 0

REMINDER - VOCAB DEFINITIONS DUE TONIGHT FOR WEEK4!!!

Today we are going to finish FA2.  When you are done you should have 2 pages that are printed out - make sure to staple these and hand into the gray tray on the corner of my desk.  There is a specific order in which these should be stapled together so make sure to put them in correct order.

Once you get done with the formatting activity you will be working on learning the numbers across the top of the keyboard.  We are going to start with the first 5 today.  Here is how they should be used:

8 - R2 (reach from K to 8)
1 - L4 (reach from A to 1)
9 - R3 (reach from L to 9)
4 - L1 (reach from F to 4)
0 - R4 (reach from ; to 0)

When entering the numbers it will require you to really reach your fingers - I highly recommend watching your fingers make the "jump" from home row to the number row so you can get an idea of how far your fingers actually have to go in order to get to the numbers.  That also means that anchoring - or making sure that you keep at least one of your fingers on the home row - will be an even more important part of not losing your place on the home row.

P. 29, 13B, lines 1-4 twice
P. 30, 13D, lines 1-8 twice
P. 30, 13C, lines 1-6 once
P. 30, 13E, lines 1-6 once

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Learn Z and colon left shift R4 vocab definitions due tonight!

If you have not completed FA1 and emailed it to me then you need to get that done ASAP at the beginning of class.  If you have already completed FA1 and it has been emailed to me then you need to go to the Free Typing Game website and complete a couple of the speed tests.  Choose test #8.  These do not need to be written on the poster on the wall - just practice to see how well you can do.

Today we will learn the last letter (yay!) on the keyboard - the Z (L4); in addition we will also be learning the colon (Left Shift + R4).

Just a quick reminder for those who are responsible for vocab definitions for week 3 - your definitions must be posted to the Wikispaces page by tonight.

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Why not to print more money by Government

SCENARIO 1:


Many of them asking why not print more money to solve debt problem?

SOLUTION:


Consider we have debt around 100 cr. to china,america,etc.,Now we print 100cr and solved debt problem.Now we are happy that we are free from debt from other countries.ok sounds happy.....
Now consider a product that avail only in america they are asking 100cr.As you wish now india can print 100cr money but other side other country can also print money,now they can also provide 100cr to that product.Now what america will do they increase product rate 200cr now also india can print and china also can print money..so there is no end to solve the problem.......what will america keep on increase the price of product and india and china keep on print the money until print paper avail........sounds crazy isnt........This is not right way to lead a world economy.........so this will rise money inflation and world economic war...........

SCENARIO 2


Now consider indian government planned to give 1cr to each people in india,what will happen?

SOLUTION:


Now consider there is only 1 book avail in bookshop.The cost book is 10000.person arun having 1cr and hari also having 1cr.now they both are demanding that book.Both of them have money to buy that book.But only one book avail,so the shopkeeper will rise the book price to 20000.Now also they can buy that book,Since they have 1cr in their hand.So the price of book keep on increasing like 1.1cr...now who have extra money, they only can buy that book.So there is no use of providing 1cr to each people,Though both of them having 1cr,but one person only can buy that book......now tell guys is there any use of providing 1cr to each people ....it also lead inflation and economic war.........

NOTE:if everyone having money means who will do agricultural works,then where we can get food.........think guys....thats why government not printing more moneyy............

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Top 20 Ways to Learn Computer Science Online

Ive been trying to keep up with all of the new ways to learn to code online - the first list is here. The new APCS Principles course has a lot of elements that move beyond teaching computer science as a coding class, including teaching about the Internet and using data. It is getting hard to keep up.

Modest Maps

A few top 20 lists:

• Top 20 Online training sites for Web Design 
• Top 20 Data Visualization Tools
• Top 20 Coding Online Tools

And for a little numerical diversity:

• Top 10 Sites for Free Education with Elite Universities

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Mapping the Internet

Whenever we start a new topic I love having an activity to set the tone. I came across the Mapping the Internet a few weeks back.

The projects asks people to "Please draw a map of the Internet, as you see it. Indicate your "home".

Yesterday I wrote about HTML in my Internet Unplugged unit. I think this would be a fun way to start off that unit.

My Daughters Maps

They have a taxonomy of these maps. Which of course is data - another big idea from CS Principles. From here it would be interesting to collect the students drawings and do some discussion board topics about what they drew. Were there common themes? How did your map change after learning about the physical parts of the Internet? Did it change after learning HTML and CSS?


Another thing I try to do is set a presence for computer science in my school. Wherever we can I do art projects and hang them in the halls around the building. This would be another great way to get computer science out of the lab.

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I Have a Dream bookstore edition

It is sad that in the local book store with the best selection of these:

There is not a single computer science book in these:

My goal? To have enough local high schools offering computer science that is is financially viable for them to carry computer science review books too.

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Speed test practice

We are going to spend some time today reviewing the keys we have learned so far.  After reviewing we will go to the Free Typing Games website to see how our speed is progressing.  Just like we did last time we will take 3 one minute timings and use the best score.  Remember to use the corrected speed when writing your speed on the poster.  You will need to use either test #6 or test #7.

After completing the timed writings I will have another activity for you - Ill explain it when we get to it.

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Data Unit Day Four

(This is a day by day of the Data: Lets do the Numbers Unit in CS Principles. The overview is here.)

We only had half a class today. As a part of the CS Principles Pilot we have to do pre and post surveys about the course and that ate up a lot of teaching time.

Their activity for the rest of class was to start forming questions around data.

Data is Big Idea III: Data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge. 

A. People use computer programs to process information to gain insight andknowledge.

1. Computers can be used to find patterns in, and test hypotheses about, digitally represented information.
2. Insight and knowledge can result from translating and transforming digitally represented information.

B. Computing facilitates exploration and the discovery of connections ininformation.

1. Big Data (use of large datasets) provides new opportunities and new challenges for extracting information and knowledge.
2. Scalability, of systems and analytical approaches, is an important consideration when datasets are large.
3. Metadata can increase the effective use of data or a dataset by providing additional information about various aspects of that data.

C. Computational manipulation of information requires consideration ofrepresentation, storage, security, and transmission.

1. There are trade-offs involved in the many possible ways to represent digital and non-digital information as digital data.
2. Data is stored in many formats depending on its characteristics—such as size and intended use—so that it can be manipulated computationally.

Again, be careful. Only one of the Key Concepts mentions Big Data. There is a lot of talk about the Big Data aspects of CS Principles. Yes, the students need to work with big data as a part of the portfolio, but not everything in data needs to be BIG.

(You can see all the CS Principles documents here)

We are on Srpring Break next week, so I am trying to get them ready so when we get back they can finish the Data Portfolio item.

Today I had them work with a partner with the crime data set from last class and come up with five questions they might answer with the data. 

Talk about unexpected results. I had assumed it was obvious what kinds of questions we could answer with a data set. How many times have you done this as a teacher? Made an assumption about what they knew and then were totally surprised by the results.

This is one of the major benefits of regular journaling as a part of the course. It helps you spot these underlying assumptions early and correct them.

Having them write out questions very quickly showed who was on the tight track and who needed some more direction. In general I got two types of questions.

First type of question: 

• Is the funding for the local police departments increasing or decreasing within the small cities?
• What types of violent crimes were committed?

Second type of question: 

• Does higher amounts of college education result in lower crime rate? 
• Does an increase in annual police funding relate to educational level?

See the difference between the two?

Many of the students were asking questions for more data, or information not given in the spreadsheet.

This shows that we need to talk a little bit before we start this part of the unit about what kinds of questions can and cannot be answered with data sets. The first set of questions are really more for reporters, not statisticians. Our focus here is really looking for connections and correlations between the data already collected.

And think about what would have happened had we started right into the data portfolio. That process asks them to develop questions then find an appropriate data set to answer those questions. Clearly I need to include some instruction on what types of questions are appropriate.

My original plan was to then experiment with the same data set in a database rather than a spreadsheet and compare results. I am abandoning that idea in the interest of time. At  this point they need to start working through their portfolios. Now that I know we need to go back and talk about what kinds of questions they can ask that needs to be our focus.

Next class is a half day so I will only see them for 45 minutes. we will spend the time really looking at the questions they will develop as they start on their portfolios after break.

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Data Unit Lets do the Numbers

Today we started the unit on data in the CS Principles

Sketch for Day 1 - (I am a visual planner)

This is probably the trickiest of all of the CS Principles Big Ideas. Data is just a big toic - a lot of ideas under one umbrella. For most Computer Science teachers it is not a topic that was a part of our training and it is not something we are used to teaching. It is a fairly new topic to computer science in general and I do think we are not yet sure how to approach the topic so that it is understandable and engaging for high school kids and also reachers the rigor of a college level course.

My approach for this Unit ("Lets do the Numbers") is to cover a few topics. Well do the Data portfolio this unit. We need to look at number calculations in coding. This includes some ideas like roudoff error and will also tie back to the topics we did at the beginning of the year around data representation. If we have the time well also do some things around modeling and simulation.

This is a change for this year. Last year we got bogged down with coding and lost sight of the data aspects. really they dont need to amster all teh minutia of numeric processing, but you do want them to connect that processing to some pretty big changes happening in computer science right now.

A note of caution on Data - not all Data is BIG. There is a lot of buzz around the idea of Big data and it is important to to implement this with fidelity to the actual CS Principles standards. Big Idea II is Data, and it states:

Data: Data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge.

There are seven "Supporting Concepts" for this. Only one of them mentions Big Data.

(As an aside "supporting concepts??"- I know - sometimes I also wish we just got a topic list like the regular APCS and be done with it. Trust me, youll get used to it).

So What? The point is not everything your kids will be doing for this topic involve big data sets. A lot of it really is just engaging with the topic and making connections outside the computer science lab.

Here are the thinking points I want my kids walking away with for the data topics:

• Is it true?
• What data is being collected about me?
• How has data changed scientific research?
• How is data stored?
• Is data always good?

And really, arent these basic civics topics for anyone living on the Internet?

---

The Unit --> Heres a list of what we are doing for the unit

• Day 1: Introduction
• Day 2: Notes on Data and Explore a Simple Data Set 
• Day 3: Explore Data in a Spreadsheet
• Day 4: Asking Questions
• Day 5: Questions 
• Day 6: Start on the Data Portfolio
• Day 7: Portfolio - Crunching the Numbers
• Day 8: Portfolio Due
• Day 9: Code - number calculations in C++ and Roundoff Error

• 
  

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Type2Learn Program

Our Type2Learn program is really helping to improve our keyboarding skills! We saw gains of 6-8 wpm on our typing tests!

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Internet Safety

Please continue to work on your Internet Safety project with your partner if you have not yet completed your 4 topics.  There have been several people asking about length - there is no minimum or maximum time that your video (or videos) need to be - you just need to clearly explain 4 of the topics of Internet Safety.

If you are done with your project today I want you to go to the practice websites on the blog - you will use your speed skin as you type.

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Journaling in the Computer Science Classroom

One of the biggest changes for the new APCS Principles course is the use of Performance Tasks (PT) as a part of the official CollegeBoard assessment. These PTs and a summative test at the end of the year will be used to score the kids, just like the 1-5 score they get on other AP tests.

This means our students need lots of practice writing. In my CS Principles pilot we do a lot of journaling throughout the year. I give them specific prompts to respond to every few days. We also heavily use discussion boards (more on that here) to get them reading and responding to other students work. this is especially important since two of the PTs are collaborative.

This year I am trying to keep these topics n a more organized list - here are the topics for Unit 2: The Internet Unplugged: Journal Topics for Unit 2

For their journals - I read them periodically throughout the term. I am not checking for grammar or spelling - the goal is to get ideas recorded and to start using writing as a part of their reflections on the topics we use in class.

Note - if you were using an old version of the PTs, they were updated earlier this fall. You can find the update here.

The most significant change is the Internet Task has been replaced by Explore. The feel of the two tasks are the same, but the updated version allows them to pick any innovation, not just those centered around the Internet.

For my students I am doing journal topics that connect the Internet and innovation. well be doing a Model Performance Task in the next few weeks, and will finish the first PT on Innovation after we finish the Unit 2.

Other writing Posts:

• The Great Debate
• Discussion Boards
• Debating Computer Science
• Music to teach Computer Science

Read More..