Computer Science News Roundup May 30 2012

Each week my computer science students do discussion board posts that respond to current events. Here are some stories that caught my eye this week.

Computer Science related news this weeks theme is the future of technology:

• The Spaceship Has Landed - the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has docked at the international space station. How does this change space travel? What are the chances you could ever go to space? would you want to? Do you think this will impact any other areas where research and development happen?
• Optimism - This article talks about the reasons to be optimistic about our future. The author lists several reasons to be optimistic. How does technology play a role? How does the constant stream of information that is created by technology contribute to pessimism? Do you agree with the author? Are you optimistic about your future? Why?
• What do you expect? - Shelly Turkles book is called "Alone together: Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From Each Other". In this article she summarizes some of her ideas. Her Ted Talk on the topic can be found here. What role does technology play in how you communicate? How has computer science impacted how you communicate? How could computer science be used to fix some of the problems the author write about?
• Internet Defense League - This group wants to "defend the Internet from bad laws and monopolies". Do you think there is a need for this? What harm could come from groups like this? Benefits? Should there be a concern about vigilantes on the Internet? And finally - do you agree that the cat is the symbol of the Internet?

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Computer Science News Roundup May 16 2012

Each week my CS Principles students do discussion board posts that respond to current events. Here are some stories that caught my eye this week:

Computer Science related news, a mostly BBC theme this week:

• Criminal Robots - so now that you can visit far-away placed using avatars and robots, what are the ethical implications? We tend to place a lot of trust in the Internet, but criminals are on-line too. How should this shape your digital life?
• Hactivist Simulation - Brittans government recently ran a simulation of a cyber - attack from a group of hactivists. How should governments be responding to these attacks? What jobs might relate to protecting from cyber attacks? Should the response be different for cyber-terrorists?
• Yahoo Chief Executive steps down Computer Science degrees are so valuable CEOs are faking them. Why is it important to be truthful in presenting information about yourself? Many have argued that the Internet has made us all more anonymous. Is this true?
• And for the truely paranoid: WiFi blocking wallpaper.

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May schedule Excel project beginning

Im going to include in this blogpost the schedule for the remainder of the year.  Obviously this could change if needed; however, my hope is that with us being so close to the end of the year that we wont need to make any changes and that the rest of the year will run smoothly.

May 5 - vocab video, Excel project beginning (Homework - post any definitions to Wiki spaces)

May 6 - vocab video, Excel project work (Homework - post any definitions to Wiki spaces)

May 7 - vocab video, Excel project due (Mr. Pardoe gone 6th hour due to Medieval Times Feast)

May 8 - vocab video, final formatting activity beginning ("Design a Pizza Menu")

May 9 - Vocab quiz #10, Design a Pizza Menu work (Mr. Pardoe gone all day due to Medieval Times field trip)

May 12 - ASPIRE testing (Mr. Pardoe gone)

May 13 - Design a Pizza Menu work (Mr. Pardoe gone)

May 14 - Design a Pizza Menu due

May 15 - Our Town unit

May 16 - Our Town unit

May 19 - Our Town unit

May 20 - Our Town unit

May 21 - Our Town field trip all day

May 22 - complete missing assignments

May 23 - complete missing assignments - all assignments due by by this date!

Once we get done watching the video I will explain what you need to know in Excel for the formatting activity, which is a business called Funspots and their monthly admission ticket sales activity that you need to complete. 

Funspots ticket sales.docx

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Marching towards May APCS exam prep

In my APCS class we are functionally done with new topics this year. They are working on searches and sorts the next two weeks, but in my mind that is just an application of the array material we covered back in December.

This is how I pace my AP class...as a spiral. We hit a topic early on, like arrays. Then in the next unit we cover methods, and guess what? Most of the methods I have them write process arrays. We do class design, and here we are back on arrays. My hope is that by seeing them embedded throughout with lots of repetition, they might actually remember a few things about them on the AP exam, or in college, or on Jeopardy. Im a dreamer that way.

To start off we did a day of review about arrays. I gave them some practice exercises, then we did CodingBat  problems. That was Monday. Wednesday we started searches. First I gave them a quiz - I randomly picked one of the CodingBat problems from last class and used it for a 60-80-100 quiz.

 As went over the problem we talked a lot about stealing points on the APCS Free Response questions...did you know you could steal points?

We did the 2009 #1 free response problem. it ties in nicely with a lot of what you see in the CodingBat problems.

Then we did searches. I used Plastic eggs  for the linear search. We did the telephone book trick for the binary search. Heres a video of another way to teach this.

And as a side note, as telephone books become less common I am finding I horde these.

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