What's Going On? March 28th through April 1st

Thought for the Week

STEM Opportunity

What: Tech Savvy 2022 is a one-day conference for girls in grades 6 to 9 and their parent(s), designed to inspire and encourage them in STEM fields. Registration is also open to interested boys. The students who attend Tech Savvy will experience exciting hands-on activities led by professional women in STEM fields. There will be a program for adults to learn more about working in the STEM fields, encouraging their children in STEM, and helping them to prepare for college or technical school. 

When: Saturday, April 30, 2022, 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. 

Where: On the UW-Whitewater campus in various science and technology labs. 

Tech Savvy is jointly organized by the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Fort Atkinson and Janesville branches and UW-Whitewater Office of Continuing Education. 

Learn more about the exciting lineup of workshop sessions or register at.uww.edu/ce/camps/additional/techsavvy

AP Computer Science Principles

Now that we have returned from spring break, it is time to move on to our study of "Big Data".  This week, we will use the Python libraries matplotlib and pandas in order to read and analyze large sets of data more easily.  Additionally, we will talk about how to submit our APCSP Performance "Create" task to the AP Board.  Remember: all projects are due to the AP Board no later than May 2nd at 10:59pm.  This project accounts for 30% of the AP score.

Monday, March 28, 2022	How can I analyze large data sets?	Big Data	Activity 3.2.1: Trends in Temperature Log into the PLTW site to read and work through Activity 3.2.1 While working through the activity, complete the Activity 3.2.1 Document and submit to Google Classroom.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022	How can I analyze large data sets?	Big Data	Activity 3.2.1: Trends in Temperature Log into the PLTW site to read and work through Activity 3.2.1 While working through the activity, complete the Activity 3.2.1 Document and submit to Google Classroom.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022	How can I analyze large data sets?	Big Data	Activity 3.2.1: Trends in Temperature Log into the PLTW site to read and work through Activity 3.2.1 While working through the activity, complete the Activity 3.2.1 Document and submit to Google Classroom.
Thursday, March 31, 2022	How can I analyze large data sets?	Big Data	Activity 3.2.2: Shocking Data Trends Log into the PLTW site to read and work through Activity 3.2.2 While working through the activity, complete the Activity 3.2.2 Document and submit to Google Classroom.

App Development

We will start off this week by talking about UIViews.  We will practice adding them to our apps and talk about how they can be used to enhance the design of our app.  The rest of the week will be devoted to our second summative end-of-unit app challenge called "Multiply". In this app, students will create a simple calculator.

Monday, March 28, 2022	UIViews Read: UIView Playgroundbook Class Activity: UIView Hackwich
Tuesday, March 29, 2022	End of Unit App Challenge: Multiply (Summative)
Thursday, March 31, 2022	End of Unit App Challenge: Multiply (Summative)
Friday, April 1, 2022	End of Unit App Challenge: Multiply (Summative)

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will focus on lesson 8.  In this lesson, we will talk about the "Box Model", namely how to add padding, margin, and general spacing within our site.  Along with this week, students will read chapter 14 in our textbook, complete the accompanying reading guide, complete web assignment 8A (tutorial-based from the textbook), and our weekly lesson review questions.  Students are considered "on-pace" for the course if all work through lesson 8 is completed by the end of class on Thursday.  Students who need additional help or work time are encouraged to come into the lab during JIT.  As a reminder, the following week, students will be completing our midterm web assignment.

Monday, March 28, 2022	Lesson 8: Thinking Inside the Box Read chapter 14: Thinking Inside the Box Begin Completing Reading Guide (due Tuesday) Lesson 8: Thinking Inside the Box
Tuesday, March 29, 2022	Work on Web Assignment 8A Finish Turn In Lesson 8 Reading Guide: Thinking Inside the Box Pre-plan answers to your Lesson 8 Review Questions (on Blackboard)
Wednesday, March 30, 2022	Submit Lesson 8 Review Questions (on Blackboard) Turn In Web Assignment 8A
Thursday, March 31, 2022	Midterm Review

What's Going On? March 14th through March 18th

  Thought for the Week

Spring Break Spirit Week!  

Join the fun as we count down the days until our break!

AP Computer Science Principles

This week is the final week that students will have class time to work on our AP Create performance task.  Students who are not taking the AP exam will submit this assignment to me for grading as a summative assessment.  Students who are taking the AP exam will need to submit this project to the AP Board no later than May 2nd at 10:59pm.  

App Development 

The focus of this week is "Text Fields".  For this week, we will learn how to add textfields to our program and learn how to use the information that the user has typed into them within our program.  Students will go through a demo hackwich, complete a code challenge, and summarize their learning via a techincal blog post.

Programming the Web 1

We will start Monday's class by completing our 10 multiple choice questions for lesson 6.  The rest of the time will be used for students to finish up their work on our lesson 6 web assignments.  In these assignments, students are learning how to apply style to our web pages.

For the rest of the week, we will move on to lesson 7.  In this lesson, we will learn about how to apply features to our links and add images to our background.  Along with this week, students will have our lesson 7 reading guide (due Wednesday), our lesson 7 review questions (Thursday), and will complete three tutorial-style web assignments with the help of our textbook.

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

Thought for the Week

Schedule for the Week - ACT for Juniors on Tuesday

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue with their 12-hours of class time to work on their "Create" performance task.  Ideally, students will be wrapping up their code at the beginning of the week.  This will give students the rest of the class time to focus on writing the written responses.

App Development

For the majority of the week, students will be focused on using operators within our code.  On Monday, students will continue with their "Operators Code Challenge".  On Thursday, we will summarize what we know about operators and comparisons.  We will end the week by focusing on how to use a Text Field within our apps.

Programming the Web 1

At this point, we know just about all the things about HTML and marking up our web pages that we need to know.  Now it is time to focus on design with CSS.  This week, we will learn more about how we can add style, color, and other design features to our pages to make them look even better.  Along with this week, students will need to read chapters 11 and 12 while completing our lesson 6 reading guide (due Wednesday).  Students will follow some tutorials from the textbook the week to complete our three web assignments for the week.  Students are considered "on pace" for the class if all of the lesson 6 work is completed by the end of class on Thursday.  Students who need additional time in lab are encouraged to come in during our JIT time before school and/or during lunch.

What's Going On? February 28th through March 4th

Thought for the Week

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue to work on their AP CSP "Create" performance task.  Students will be given a total of 12 hours of class time to complete this project.  Ideally, students will be wrapping up the coding portion of the project by the end of this week/beginning of next week.  This will allow students ample time to work on the written responses required for the project.

App Development

This week, we will continue with our second major unit of the year.  We will start off the week by checking out some principles of design and talking about some of the required elements of Apple Apps.  We will then talk about Algorithmic Thinking and the importance of planning out our apps before we start coding them.  We will end the week by learning about how the Swift programming language works with operators (think: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and logic.

  

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will have a chance to work within DreamWeaver.  Our objective for the week is to learn how to properly add images to our projects and turn them into links.  Students will also have the opportunity to work with Image Maps.  Students should complete their lesson 5 reading guides for class on Monday.  We will also have our Project 5A (Black Goose Bistro Gallery) and Project 5B (Allco Image Map) to work with.  Students will complete their 10 multiple choice question assessment at the beginning of class on Wednesday.

As a reminder, students who need additional time in the computer lab are encouraged to come in during JIT before school and/or during lunch.

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.