What's Going On? September 5th through September 8th

App Development 1

This week in app development, we will start to take a some of the elements that go into creating an app.  We will be exploring our software, XCode.  With this software, we will learn about the two parts necessary to create an app: the storyboard and the code.  The storyboard will determine what the app looks like and its features while the code will determine what happens in the app.  For example, this week we will learn how to place a button on our storyboard and then we will write some code that makes something happen.  This week, we will focus on creating buttons, labels and image views.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week we will start by reviewing our chapter 1 reading of the text, Blown to Bits.  After our discussion, we will dive into some programming concepts using the website lightbot.com.  This is a game-style programming simulation that will help students get a feel for writing code.  Once we have played with this site, we will move into another.  We will spend a couple of weeks investigating the Scratch programming platform.  Since this course is all about the underlying principles of computer programming, we will explore a few different languages and talk about the connections between them.

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will continue our study of unit 1: Web Basics.  During class on Friday, we started to talk about different ways that web designers may choose to create a website: with a fixed-width layout, a liquid layout, or a responsive site.  We will start to look at some of the websites we visit every day and decide how the web designer chose to create them.  During Wednesday's class, students will complete our first project 1A.  For this project, students will find an example of each type of layout.  Additionally this week, students will see the largest reading assignment for the course.  Since it is such a lengthy assignment, students will break up into small groups to summarize portions of the text.  The class will complete a "gallery walk" in order to get a brief synopsis of the content.  During this time, students will complete their weekly reading guide in order to prepare for Friday's ten question review question summative assessment.