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.