What's Going On? February 21st through February 25th

Thought for the Week

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will begin their work for the **official** APCSP "Create" performance task.  Students who have registered to take the AP Exam in May will submit this project to the AP Board by May 2nd at 10:59PM.  The project will account for 30% of the overall AP score. Students who are not registered to complete the AP Exam will submit their projects to me. The project will be scored as a summative.  Per the AP instructions, students will have a total of 12 hours of class time to complete their program code, create a 1-minute video, and complete their written responses.  

App Development

During the first half of the week, students will have class time to complete their first summative end-of-unit app challenge, "Hello World".  In this app, students will demonstrate their ability to add elements to our story board to design the app as well as write some code.  At the second half the week, we will complete our pre-unit hackwich called "Display a Number" and take a look at some of the design features included in Apple apps.

Programming the Web 1

We will spend the first part of the week focused on creating links within our web pages.  For the second part of the week, students will be introduced to the program DreamWeaver.  This high-powered program will allow us to create web pages more easily.  While learning about DreamWeaver, students will learn how to apply links to images as well as create an image map.  Students will need to complete their lesson 4 reading guide by Monday (2/21).  Our lesson 4 multiple-choice review questions will take place at the beginning of class on Tuesday.  By the end of class on Tuesday, students should turn in our projects 4A (Jen's Kitchen) and 4B (Glossary).  Students who need additional time to work are strongly encouraged to attend a JIT session before school and/or during lunch Monday-Thursday.

What's Going On? February 14th through February 17th

  Thought for the Week

It's a Short Week!

We will have an early release day on Thursday and NO SCHOOL on Friday.  Due to this shortened week, our schedule will look a bit different.  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 shorted Friday-style schedule.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Wednesday, February 16th

Our last Parent-Teacher Conference of the 2021-2022 school year will be held on 2/16/22 from 5:00-7:00 PM. The results of a parent survey indicated our families preferred scheduled conferences. Please visit this link to sign up for a time to meet!  You can find my sign-up under the "Math" tab.

AP Computer Science A

This week, students will complete their practice "Create" tasks.  All tasks are due on Wednesday.  After tasks are submitted, I will give specific feedback based on the AP Create Task rubric.  This should give students guidance on how to craft their official Create task that will be submitted to the AP board.  The Create Performance Task will account for 30% of the overall AP score.

App Development

This week we will wrap up our primary work with variables and data types.  Students will complete their variables code challenge (formative - application development) and summarize their learning on the topic through a blog post (formative - application analysis).  We will end the week by starting our first summative end-of-unit app challenge called "Hello World".  For this assignment, students will demonstrate what they have learned about setting up a storyboard, making connections to the code, as well as variables.

Programming the Web 1

We will start off the week by wrapping up our lesson 3 assignments.  Students will start the class by completing their lesson 3 review questions and will submit their 3A (Lists) and 3B (Black Goose News) projects to Google classroom.  For the rest of the week, we will talk about how to add links to our web pages.  Students will learn how to create absolute, relative, email, and fragment links to a site.  To go along with this unit, students will read chapters 7 and 10 from the textbook, complete the accompanying reading guide (due Monday 2/21), complete two projects (4a: Jen's Kitchen and 4B: Glossary), and complete our lesson 4 review questions (Tuesday 2/22).  Students who need some additional time in the lab are encouraged to come in during JIT before school and during the end of our lunch period.

What's Going On? February 7th through February 11th

 Thought of the Week

Winter Spirit Week

Show your Northstar spirit and participate in the dress-up days this week!

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Wednesday, February 16th

Our last Parent-Teacher Conference of the 2021-2022 school year will be held on 2/16/22 from 5:00-7:00 PM. The results of a parent survey indicated our families preferred scheduled conferences. Please visit this link to sign up for a time to meet!  You can find my sign-up under the "Math" tab.

Free Coding Opportunity: Data Science Workshop

AP Computer Science Principles

This week we will be completing some prep-work as we prepare to work on our official AP Create Performance Task.  Students who are taking the AP CSP exam in May will need to complete this "Create" project and submit it to the AP Board for review. This performance task will be counted as 30% of the overall AP score.  Students who are not completing the AP exam will have this assignment counted as a summative score.

On Monday, we will analyze some of the Create Tasks that have been submitted to the AP Board in the past.  We will look at the sample responses and critique the work based on the AP rubric.  This will help students when they write their responses for their own tasks: learning what to include and what to avoid in the written responses.

For the rest of the week, students will work on the practice Create task.  Students may not include any portion of the practice task for submission to the AP board.  However, I am able to provide specific feedback and tips that should prove to be helpful when students are working on the official task.

App Development

During class on Monday, students will take some time to summarize our learning from last week.  Students will share what they have learned about Actions and Outlets.  The summary will include descriptions of each and an explanation about how they interact in our code.  On Tuesday, we will talk about how to add a picture to an app.  We will wrap up the week by learning about variables.

Programming the Web 1

During class on Monday, students will wrap up their work for lesson 2.  This will include completing our lesson 2 multiple choice questions and submitting projects 2A (Black Goose Bistro) and 2B (Personal Web Page).  We will also take some time to register for this class through WCTC for students who would like to earn transcripted credit through WCTC.  During the rest of the week, we will focus on lesson 3.  In this lesson, we will learn about additional HTML tags, including ways to mark up lists, quotes, and other sections.  Along with lesson 3, students will read chapter 5 and complete the reading guide (due Thursday), complete the lesson 3 multiple-choice questions (Monday 2/14), and create two web pages (3A: Lists, 3B: Black Goose Blog).  The web assignments will be turned in on Monday, February 14th.  

Students who need some additional time or assistance to keep on pace with our classwork are encouraged to come in during our JIT time before school and/or during lunch.

What's Going On? January 31st through February 4th

 Thought for the Week

AP Computer Science Principles

For the first two days of this week, we will focus on parallel and sequential computing.  We will complete an in-class activity to take a look at how a computer may be able to complete a task.  For the last two days of the week, we will take a look at the legal and ethical concerns related to computing.  We will talk about licensing issues and other things to keep in mind as we develop software.  Students will check-in with a couple of AP Classroom Quizzes in order to prepare for the types of questions they may expect to encounter during May's AP Exam.

App Development

This week, we will focus on "Actions and Outlets".  In the most basic terms, an action allows our app to "do something" while an action allows our app to "display something".  We will spend Monday's class completing reading and taking notes on the general features of both. On Tuesday, we will complete a class-led hackwich to put our knowledge into practice.  The rest of the week, students will work more independently on our "Actions and Outlets Code Challenge" to further develop our skills.

Web 1

Monday's class will be devoted to summarizing our reading and completing our lesson 1 reading guides.  We will also spend some time planning the answers to the questions for our first set of summative multiple-choice questions about some of the basics of web design.  For the rest of the week, we will dive into creating a web page.  On Tuesday, we will go through our notes and create a sample page together.  For the rest of the week, students will start to put their knowledge into practice with our first two web assignments of the semester.  Students will complete Project 2A: Black Goose Bistro, a tutorial from our textbook.  Students will also complete Project 2B.  For this project, students will create a short personal web page about themselves.

It is important to note that this class is offered in partnership with WCTC.  Students may opt to enroll in this class with WCTC.  Students who choose this option and complete the semester with a "C" or higher based on the WCTC grading scale will earn free transcripted credit.

What's Going On? January 25th through January 28th

 Thought for the Week

Welcome to the second semester!

Welcome to the Second Semester!

Hello Computer Science Students!  My name is Mrs. Kamenar and I will be working with you during your computer science class this year. This is my 17th year teaching math and computer science at Waukesha North. This year I will be teaching Honors Geometry, Math Readiness, App Development 1, AP Computer Science Principles, Programming the Web 1, and Yearbook. In addition to teaching, I am also the head women's cross country coach and yearbook advisor. I hope that everyone had a great first semester and that we are ready to learn about computer science! 

My goal is to keep you up to date with what's going on in the classroom through this blog. Between the blog and our class schedule of events that will be posted on our BlackBoard class website, it is my hope that all students and parents will be informed about what's going on in the classroom whether we are learning virtually or face-to-face.

Where Can Students Find Everything?

One of the first things to keep in mind is that all of our class material will be found through our Blackboard class website.  This site will contain links to our content, assignments, and other resources.

AP Computer Science Principles

As we begin the second semester, we will continue with our lesson 2.2 activities.  This week, we will focus on Activity 2.2.3: Demystifying Data Transmission. In this activity, we will learn about how data is shared across the internet, explore how information is retrieved, and learn about how data can be compressed.

App Development

In this class, students will learn how to program for Apple devices using the Swift programming
language. This week, we will take a look at our programming environment and create our first app: a flashlight!

Programming the Web 1

In this class, students will learn the basics of web page design using HTML and CSS. This week, we will take a look at our coding environment and will talk about the different layout choices web designers can use when creating a website. This class is offered in partnership with WCTC, which means that students who enroll in this free program and complete the course successfully are eligible to earn WCTC college credit. 

What's Going On? January 18th through January 21st

 Thought for the Week

Exam Week!

This week is exam week!  Students will not have school on Monday.  Tuesday will be a "Monday-style" schedule where students meet with all of their classes.  For the rest of the week, we will be following the following exam schedule:

AP Computer Science Principles

During class on Tuesday, we will spend our class period reviewing for our first-semester exam.  Our exam will take place from 8:00-9:00am on Wednesday, January 19th.  Students who are late may not be admitted into the exam so PLEASE BE ON TIME!!!!  During our exam period, students will complete a 45-question multiple-choice exam that is in a similar style to the AP exam we will complete in May.  Students who would like additional work time or to ask questions are invited to come in during our "review/conferencing" time.

App Development

During class on Tuesday, students will continue to work on their final projects.  Our exam period will take place from 9:10-10:10am on Wednesday, January 19th.  Students who are late may not be admitted into the exam so PLEASE BE ON TIME!!!!  For our final project, students will learn about something new related to the Swift programming language.  Students will then create a video, no longer than 7-minutes, explaining how to use the new feature.  In addition to submitting this project for our final grade, students also have the option to submit this screencast for the "Mobile Makers Winter Contest" in order to be eligible to win prizes, including meeting with a programming mentor, an Amazon gift card, or a Mobile Makers t-shirt.  Students who would like additional work time or to ask questions are invited to come in during our "review/conferencing" time.

Web 1

During class on Tuesday, students will continue to work on their final projects.  Our exam period will take place from 10:20-11:20am on Wednesday, January 19th.  Students who are late may not be admitted into the exam so PLEASE BE ON TIME!!!!  We will complete a 20-question multiple-choice test at the beginning of the exam period Students will have the exam period to finish up their final project: a website about their topic of choice.  The site must contain at least four web pages and demonstrate what we have learned about HTML and CSS throughout the course of the semester.  Students who would like additional work time or to ask questions are invited to come in during our "review/conferencing" time.

What's Going On? January 10th through January 14th

Thought for the Week

Upcoming Exam Schedule

On January 19th through January 21st, students will participate in our first semester exams.  Please note the time scheduled for each exam in the schedule below.  Students are welcome to come in to get extra help or have a quiet place to study during our review/conferencing time.  Students have one hour to complete their semester exam and must be in class, ready to work, at the beginning of the exam period.  

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will wrap up their "pHishy Fish Tank" security activity and dive into data representation.  We will focus on how different data can be represented using the binary number system.  We will wrap up the week by reviewing for our semester exam.  

App Development 1

This week, students will spend our first three class days developing the "Word Play" app.  This is a "Mad-Lib"-style app that will prompt our app user to enter in a few words onto one screen and then insert them into a story on a later screen.  At the end of the week, students will transition over to our final project.  For this final project, students will research and learn about a new programming technique, learn how to implement it, and create a 5 minute video explaining how to create it.  This final project can also be submitted to the Mobile Makers Winter Screencast contest.  You can read about more details of the contest here.

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will spend the first two days wrapping up our Clear Reflections website.  At the end of class on Tuesday, students will host these sites live online via 000webhost.com.  The rest of the semester will be work time for students to create and develop a website of their own choice.  As a reminder, this course is offered in partnership with WCTC.  Students who end the semester with a "C" or higher according to the WCTC grading scale will earn free transcripted credit from WCTC.