Mobile Makers Winter Contest Winners Announced!

For our end of the semester project, students in our first-semester app development courses were challenged to investigate a new Swift technique and create a video screencast walking through how to use the new technique.  Several students submitted their entries into the Mobile Makers Winter Contest and we had a few winners!  Jake Verhoff received "Top Honors" for his screencast on how to embed a video into an app.  Several more students received "Honorable Mentions" for their screencasts, including Jimmy Budelier for Audioplayer, Brett Hulliberger for Audioplayer and Music, Nelson Liu for a timer, Nick Lyons for adding sound, and Nick McIntyre for adding sound.  Nice work, App Developers!

Click here to view all entries and a list of all winners for the Mobile Makers Winter Contest.

What's Going On? February 26th through March 2nd

ACT On Tuesday, Work Keys on Wednesday

On Tuesday of this week, juniors and some select sophomores will be taking the ACT.  We want to promote a serious testing environment, so the rest of the students who are not testing will not be in school on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, Juniors will have the ACT Work Keys but the rest of the students will be in school. 


App Development 1

This week, students will continue working on our "Operators Challenge" assignment, getting used to using variables and performing mathematical operations and comparisons.  We will also have a short multiple choice BlackBoard formative assessment to check our current level of understanding.  After this, students will work on a "Commission Pay" hackwich in preparation for our end of unit app challenge, "Multiply".

App Development 2

This week, students will be working on the "Dragon Fashion" formative hackwich.  In this assignment, students will be using UITableViews to display multiple pieces of information and will also learn how to use segues to display information on a second view controller.  This is in preparation for our first end of unit app challenge, "Assignment Notebook".

Programming the Web 2

This week, students will work on finishing up our forms assignment.  Once we finish this up, we will start investigating techniques for displaying images in a web page.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue to work on their "Explore" performance task for submission to AP Central.  This task counts as 16% of the AP exam score and will be submitted on April 15th.  I have created a checklist to help students make sure that all required elements are included.

What's Going On? February 19th through February 23rd

Shortened Week: Modified Schedule
This week, we will run a different schedule.  Monday will be a "Tuesday-style" schedule, Tuesday will be a "Wednesday-style" schedule, Wednesday will be a "Thursday-style" schedule and Thursday will be a modified "Friday-style" schedule.  On Thursday, buses will depart after 8th period.  We will not have school.

Thursday Early Release Schedule

App Development 1

This week, we will take a look at operators.  Se will focus on how we can add, subtract, multiply and divide in order to perform calculations in our app.  Once we look at the different operators and how they can be applied to our apps, students will complete the "Operators Challenge". 

App Development 2

This week, we will continue our study of "TableViews" in order to present information clearly in an organized list.  Once we try out a sample together, we will work on a formative "hackwich" called "Dragon Fashion" where students can apply what we have learned so far.  This will act as an intro for our first end of unit app challenge: "Assignment Notebook".

Programming the Web 2

Now that we have taken a look at tables and forms, students will have a chance to complete two of them on their own.  The first assignment, St. Mary's, will serve as the basis of a future JavaScript assignment.  Students will also create a "Contact Me" form to include on their web portfolios.

AP Computer Science Principles

Part of the AP exam requirements includes two performance tasks.  On Monday, we will start the "Explore" task and students will receive a minimum of 8 hours of class time in order to complete the task.  For this task, students will research a current technology innovation and then create a presentation about it.  I want to make a point to emphasize two issues that many students had during our "practice explore" task. 

One was that students need to make sure to cite their work using a list of resources and in-text citations. 

The other item that students struggled with was the "disadvantages" portion of the assignment.  When talking about possible "disadvantages", students need to focus on any effects resulting from the intended use of the product/innovation/etc.  Hacking would not be considered a disadvantage.

Click here to see the entire official AP requirements and rubric for the task.

Having Trouble Coming Up with a Topic?  Consider these:

• Amazon Go Stores
• API Data with GPS Watches
• Self-Driving Trucks
• Paying with Your Face
• Face ID
• Hot Solar Cells
• Self-Driving Cars
• Lettuce-Bot
• Augmented Reality for Surgery
• Quantum Computers
• 
  

Supporting Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida use the same yearbook publishing company as we use at North, Walsworth Publishing.  Walsworth has asked our yearbook staff members to send notes to the yearbook staff and students in Florida to express our sympathy and give some possible words of encouragement.  If any students would like to join in and send a card to the students in Florida, please turn them into me by Wednesday.

Also, any students who are interested in sending a video message to the students in Florida are invited to come to the fieldhouse on Tuesday morning at 7:50.  We will organize a group video message from North to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  Please see Mrs. Kamenar if you have any questions. 

What's Going On? February 12th through February 16th

App Development 1

Students are finishing up our first end of unit app challenge: "Hello World".   We will start off the week with a code review where students will take us through some of the features of their app.  Then, we will move into our second unit of the semester.  We will review what we have learned about variables and complete a short formative assessment.  We will then talk about text fields and how they can be connected programmatically to the code and how we can enhance their functionality.  We will end the week talking about "operators".  Essentially, how we can solve math problems with our code.  This will be helpful for our next unit app challenge: "Multiply".  For this app, students will make a simplified version of a calculator.


App Development 2

This week, we will continue our work with "Inheritance", the idea of creating classes and objects that are interconnected.  Students will complete an "Inheritance Challenge" as well as a short BlackBoard quiz.  We will finish up the week by exploring table views and bar button items.  All of this is in preparation for our first end of unit app challenge: "Assignment Notebook".

Programming the Web 2

Last week, we investigated some different techniques that can be incorporated for a navigation bar.  We will start off the week by applying a new navigation feature that is available by writing some CSS.  Once this is complete, we will take a look at some other CSS techniques that we can incorporate into our pages.  We will also start looking at option for how we can display an image gallery for our site.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will get a closer look at databases using MySql.  Students will be working with a "shoe" database and will be using MySql commands in or to see how databases interact with each other.  

Once this work is complete, students will work on a summative project.  Students have the option to work in pairs, but must be ready to demonstrate and document their specific contributions to the project creation process.  Students can choose to work on one of the following prompts:

1. Project 2.2.4 – Extend the capabilities of the High School Art Gallery website.
2. Problem 2.2.4 – A client has seen your work on the High School Art Gallery and wants you to create a solution for their business. Repurpose the code to a new business context of your own imagining.

What's Going On? February 5th through February 9th

Web 2


This week, students will start with some time to put some finishing touches on the home page for our Web 2 portfolio.  Throughout the semester, students will add to the portfolio and highlight some of the techniques that we have learned.  Once this is complete, we will explore some navigation features.  Students will then add some new navigation features to our home page and are encouraged to explore responsive design for their pages.


App Development 1

This week, students will continue to focus on variables.  Students will wrap up their variables challenge assignment and then check in with a short multiple-choice formative to make sure we have a firm understanding of the important role of variables.  Once this is done, students will work on our first end of unit app challenge: "Hello World".  For this app, students will apply what we have learned in class so far about labels, buttons, and image views.  Students will also be able to explore some new features on their own, including sliders and text
fields.


App Development 2


Students will start off the week by completing the "Classes Challenge", where students will work with an existing program and write the accompanying "Student" class.  Students will also check in with a short BlackBoard formative.  Once this is complete, we will spend some time talking about inheritance.  With this, students will complete an "Inheritance Challenge" and a short quiz.  We will finish the week by talking about delegation and table views.




AP Computer Science Principles

We will start off the week by finishing up our 2.2.1 activity on HTML5 and JavaScript.  Once this is complete, we will dive into activity 2.2.2, where we will investigate the role of PHP, a server-side scripting language.  In this activity, we will look at some JavaScript code that interacts with PHP in order to create a popout that will display information when a website user places their mouse over a specific image.