Friday, December 15, 2017

What's Going On? December 18th through December 22nd

WCTC Field Trip

WCTC field trip open to all students interested in the School of Business 
(IT, Hospitality, Business, Culinary, etc)

In the next 10 years, 2/3 of the careers with the highest growth in the United States are projected to be requiring degrees that are found at the technical colleges.  On January 11th, North students may participate in a field trip to see Waukesha County Technical College's School of Business.  The School of Business includes careers in the fields of Information Technology, Business & Management, Finance, Hospitality/Culinary/Baking, and Marketing & Sales.   Any North students are able to join the experience, and we strongly encourage 10th and 11th graders to participate in order to help them start looking into options for the future.  Departure time will be 8am, and return will be 11am.   Cost:  $5 per student.   Permission slips can be picked up from Ms. Kabitzke, Ms. Kamenar, Mr. Burden, and Ms. Kube.   This is a rare opportunity to experience hands-on activities at WCTC, meet the professors, tour the campus, and hear about the programs available.  Deadline to register:  Friday, January 5th.  

Here is a brief description of what WCTC is planning for us on this day:

  • A “Game of Life” activity to simulate some of the experiences/careers/salaries students may experience. Marketing, global, business and accounting careers will be discussed along the way. 
  • Threecybercrimee scenarios will be set up and then the students will break into groups to solve the cyber crimes and then learn about the associated IT careers – such as database analyst, Cyber Security, Network, Web Development and Support.

Programming the Web 1

We will start off this week by taking the lesson 12 review questions.  Students should finish up their lesson 12 assignment before winter break.  We will also talk about our lesson 13 assignment and get started on it.  Students will have the opportunity to finish up this assignment and we will complete our lesson 13 review questions on Friday when we return from break.




App Development 1

We will start off the week by finishing up our "Loops Challenge" formative assessment.  Before we leave for break, students should expect to see a formative assessment on BlackBoard on loops.  Once we wrap up loops, we will spend some time investigating some Safari services and how to use the camera features on an iPhone or iPad.



AP Computer Science Principles

During our last week before winter break, students will be finishing up our 1.4.7 practice "Create" task.  Students can choose to work with a partner on an image technique using masks and filters.  Students will work on creating the Python code that will support their work as well as a written explanation of their work, simulating the "Create" task that will need to be submitted to the AP board in April.  Additionally, each day, students will be expected to provide entries into a digital document to show all of their thought processes and progress on their project.  This assignment should be completed and submitted to our shared folder on Google Drive before winter break.




Additionally, students should be working on a practice "Explore" task, where students investigate a piece of technology.  This is an out-of-class activity, and students should be working on this independently.  We will have a check-in on Friday, January 5th to see the progress made.  The final summative assessment will be due on Friday, January 12th.  


Friday, December 8, 2017

What's Going On? December 11th through December 15th

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will continue our study of lesson 12 where we will work with formatting images in Photoshop for our website.  Along with this week, students will need to read chapters 21 and 22 as well as complete the accompanying reading guide.  We will have one web assignment to complete throughout the week.


App Development 1

At the beginning of the week, students will work on completing their "Word Play" app reflection form to wrap up our unit.  After that, we will move into our last unit of the semester.  We will spend the rest of the week talking about algorithms and looping structures.  Students should expect to see a formative assessment before the end of the week so we can make sure we are on the right track.



AP Computer Science Principles

On Monday, students will finish up our 1.4.6 activity.  Students will need to read chapter 6 in the book "Blown to Bits" in order to answer the reflection questions about the impact of technology on society.  Additionally, students will be working on a practice "Explore" task that will need to be submitted for the AP exam in April.  After this is complete, we will move into our 1.4.7 activity where students will have another opportunity to practice the "Create" task which will also need to be submitted for the AP exam in April.







Have you registered for the AP test?
Only two students have registered so far!  Don't delay, register today!


Looking Ahead: Semester Exams


For those of you who like to plan ahead, here is our exam schedule for January.  We will talk about what our exam will look like when we get closer to this time.


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Friday, December 1, 2017

What's Going On? December 4th through December 8th

Note: I will be out of the classroom on Monday morning due to Yearbook Club Picture day and on Tuesday and Wednesday due to a conference.  I will still be available to answer questions via e-mail.

Hour of Code
December 4th through December 8th is Computer Science Education Week.  This week, students from all over the world will participate in an activity to learn a little bit more about computer science.  North will hold our own activity after school on Thursday from 3:10-4:10pm in room 300.  During this session, we will work with a Google add-on called "Story Speaker".  In this session, each student will have a chance to write a "Choose your adventure"-style story.  Once the story is written, with all of the different options, students can have Google present the story.  This program can be run via a Chrome browser and also with a Google Home device.


Programming the Web 1

This week, we will dive into lesson 11 where we will talk about how we can hide text using the "Phark Technique" as well as how to create a responsive web page.  During Monday's class we will finish going through our notes.  For our class periods Wednesday through Friday, students will be working on web assignments 11A and 11B.  Our weekly reading guide will be checked during class on Thursday and we will complete our weekly review questions during class on Friday.



App Development 1

This week, students will be working to complete our end of unit app challenge: Word Play.  I would expect that we will wrap up this app mid-week.  After this, we will move into our final project for the semester: Rock, Paper Scissors.  We will finish off the week by talking about how to design a large-scale project and sketch it out using pseudocode.  We will also talk about how we can repeat a portion of code using loops.



AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of images and object-oriented libraries.  We will talk about how we can modify images using an algorithm.  We will also take some time toward the end of the week to talk about our "Explore" task.  For this task, students are required to research how a specific piece of technology has impacted society.  Later in the year, students will have a minimum of 8 hours of class time to complete the research and write up their findings.









Have you registered for the AP test?

Only two students have registered so far!  Don't delay, register today!