What's Going On? October 30th through November 3rd

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will finish up our eighth lesson for the semester.  Students should complete our assigned reading and the accompanying reading guide by Wednesday's class.  We will also complete our ten multiple choice questions on Wednesday.  Students will have Monday and Tuesday's class to complete assignment 8A, where students will work with the box model in CSS.


Midterm

On Thursday, students will begin our midterm assignment.  Students will be given a picture of what our four pages of a website should look like, as well as the images and text for the website.  Students will be given one week to duplicate the site.  During this time, students can consult the internet, past assignments, and our textbook.  Students can also ask for a hint if needed.  We will also have 20 multiple choice questions during the following week.  These questions will NOT be open-book and open-note but will be made up of all of the questions we have seen so far through the semester.


App Development 1

We will start off the week by talking about segues.  This is how we can navigate between two screens in an app.  We will then complete a short "hackwich" called FizzBuzz.  In this formative app, we will create two text fields for our app user to enter two integers.  When we tap a button, the numbers will be multiplied and display a different result based on the output.  In this app, students will learn how we can use a function within an app as well as practice using conditional statements.  After our "hackwich", students will start on our third end of unit app challenge for the year, "Tip Calculator".

AP Computer Science Principles

We will continue our study of the Python programming language this week.  We will start the week focusing on Strings.  On Tuesdsay and Wednesday, we talk about Tuples and lists.  We will finish the week by talking about looping structures, focusing on the for loop.  Along with this week, students should complete two submission documents: 1.3.5 and 1.3.6.

What's Going On? October 23rd through October 25th

Short Week This Week!

This is just a reminder that we will run a Monday-style schedule on Monday and Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we have a shortened schedule with early release and students have the day off on Thursday and Friday.  Enjoy your time and find some time to regroup!


Programming the Web 1

On Monday during this short week, students will have some time to finish up our lesson 7 web assignments.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will go through our notes for lesson 8 where we will study the box model in CSS.  This will set us up so that we can hit the ground running when we return from our short break.



App Development

This week, we will spend some time talking about the "scope" of variables.  That is, how variables can be created and referenced from different parts of our code.  Once we have talked about this, we will create a short app where we practice gesture recognizers, including the pan gesture and the tap gesture.  We will add a simple rectangle to the screen, and by using the different gestures, we will be able to tap on the rectangle to change its color and drag the rectangle to a different location on the screen.



AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of the Python programming language.  This week, we will spend some time focusing on nested "if" statements and strings.

College, Career and Community Resource Fair 

Monday, October 23rd, the school district of Waukesha will be hosting the 2nd annual College, Career and Community Resource Fair at Waukesha South High School.   The fair will take place from 4:30 to 7:30 PM  in the Fieldhouse and surrounding Classrooms. There are several new additions to the fair and some wonderful resources from last year will also be included.

Here is what the night will entail: 

* 50+ Colleges and Universities (public, private, in-state and out-of-state)

* Over 50 local Career Professionals ready to either share about their career or invite students to job shadow, join internships, or be hired on the spot

* 20+ Community representatives offering volunteer opportunities to students.

* Eight rotating workshop/presentations provided by the many transition services for all students with an IEP or 504 organized by many of our Special Ed. leaders.

* College Applications Assistance from High school counselors.

* Financial Aid Presentations in English and Spanish from financial aid professionals.

* Scholarship information and College Essay writing from Janet Baer and Erin Martin.

* NCAA Eligibility information provided by Paul Darling

* The list of resources go on! 

What's Going On? October 16th through October 20th

App Development

Last week, students wrapped up their second app challenge of the year, "Multiply".  I was very impressed with the work being done and with how many students attempted multiple "stretches".  I am excited to see what else will be created this semester!

Now that our "Multiply" unit is done, we will move into our "Tip Calculator" unit.  By the end of the unit, students will create an app that will calculate the 15% tip for a bill at a restaurant.  For an added challenge, students can design the app to also calculate a 10%, 20%, and 25% tip.  Additionally, students can develop the app so that the total cost of the bill can be split evenly among several people.

In order to prepare for this app, we will first need to talk about conditional statements as well as how to define our own functions.  We will spend the week focused on these two topics.

AP Computer Science Principles

Now that our work with Scratch and MIT App Inventor is complete, it is time to start learning the Python programming language.  Over the weekend, students should read through the material in lesson 1.3.1: Programs are Data.

With our new language, comes new software.  To program in Python, we will be using the program "Canopy".  This program will be available through our Citrix system, which means that students are able to access it via the internet with a PC or Mac computer.  We will spend our four class days of the week learning about Python variables and functions, using our lesson 1.3.2 materials.  Once we have a solid foundation of this, we will apply our knowledge to conditional statements, using our lesson 1.3.3 materials.

Students who would like some additional support for this unit can check out codecademy.com.  This is a great FREE resource with guided Python tutorials.


Programming for the Web 1

On Monday of this week, students will have the chance to finish up their lesson materials for lesson 6.  On Wednesday, we will move into our 7th lesson of the year.  We will be focused in on how we can use CSS to change colors and backgrounds on our web pages. 

Along with the week, students will need to read chapter 13 in the textbook and complete the accompanying reading guide.  The reading guide will be due on Thursday and our 10 multiple choice questions will be completed on Friday.  Students will also have 3 web assignments to complete for the week.

What's Going On? October 9th through October 13th

App Development

This week, students will continue their work on our end of unit app challenge, "Multiply".  For this summative assessment, students will be creating an app that allows the user to enter in two different numbers.  The basic feature of the app will allow the user to click a button and have the product display on the screen.  Students are also encouraged to add some "bells and whistles" to the app by adding on our "stretches".  Students can display a picture of our school logo when the product is greater than 100, display a "funny" picture when the product is odd, and display a "funnier" picture when the product is even.  Students who are able to complete these stretches are encouraged to experiment with a segmented controller to add in the features of addition, subtraction, and division.


AP Computer Science Principles

Last week, students "pitched" an app that they would like to see created.  This week, students will choose one pitch to work on.  Students will have a week to create the app using MIT App Inventor.  At the end of the week, students will create a video and answer some reflection questions pertaining to their app and the creation process.  This is in preparation for the "Create" performance task that students will need to complete as part of the AP Computer Science Principles exam.  We will practice this skill a few times before students will need to complete the entire project and video on their own.  The goal is to get feedback so that students can create the best possible project.  This week-long project will be entered into Infinite Campus as a summative assessment.


Programming the Web 1

Last week, we had some software issues and we also had a shortened class due to the Homecoming pep rally.  So, it seems like students will need a little bit of extra time to catch up.  Students will have Monday's class to work on finishing up lesson 5 materials or catch up on old assignments.  Students who are ready to move ahead will be able to take a look at lesson 6.  Students should have brought home a grade report reflection.  These signed reflections should have been returned to school on Friday.  If you have not taken care of this obligation yet, please be sure to bring back your signed grade reflection to class on Monday.  Many of the students enrolled in the class have signed up for the WCTC transcripted credit option.  Students will need to earn a "C" or higher in the class to be eligible for WCTC credit.  I want to make sure we have a clear line of communication regarding each students' current status.  Students who need additional lab time are invited to come in Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7:00-8:00am during the month of October.

On Wednesday, the entire class will move on to lesson 6.  Students will need to read chapters 11 and 12 in the textbook and complete the accompanying reading guide.  Students will also have 10 multiple choice questions that go along with the lesson.  This week, our study will take a closer look at CSS, cascading style sheets.  Now that we have practiced adding items to our pages using HTML, we will work on the style of the page.  Students will also have three web assignment tutorials to complete.