Welcome to
AP Computer Science Principles
This week we are going to be working on the following:
AP
Computer Science Class – Unit 2 – Digital Information
To Think; To Develop Problem-Solving Skills; To Discover; and To
Create;
Learning
to Compute and Computing to Learn
Classroom
Protocol:
This is where you will come every day to find out what we are
going to do in class for that day. Every day you are to come to your Quia class
web page upon arriving to class, go to your class web page, and follow the
directions for today.
Homework
Policy:
All assignments will be due on the deadline date given. It is the
responsibility for all students to complete their assignments on time. Any
assignments received late will not be accepted and a grade will not be given for
that assignment.
Accessing
your Class Weekly Agenda:
Each
week’s agenda and assignments will be updated and posted on your Quia class
web page on a weekly basis. Previous
weeks Assignments/Agendas will be provided with a link at the end of the current
week’s Class Web Page in case you need to revisit due to an absence, or
you’re required to make up, or catch up on your course assignments.
Homework Assignment: Daily homework assignments may be found at the end of each
day’s agenda.
F
Day – Lunch 11:35 – 11:59
IMPORTANT DATES:
Saturday December 10 (8 –
12) Grafton - AP Study Session
Saturday March 4 (8 – 12) Millbury - AP Study Session
This
Week’s Agenda:
Introduction to UNIT 2: Digital
Information:
This
unit further explores the ways that digital information is encoded, represented
and manipulated. Being able to digitally manipulate data, visualize it, and
identify patterns, trends and possible meanings are important practical skills
that computer scientists do every day. Understanding where data comes from,
having intuitions about what could be learned or extracted from it, and being
able to use computational tools to manipulate data and communicate about it are
the primary skills addressed in the unit.
Chapter
1: Encoding and Compressing Complex Information
Big Questions
·
Are the ways in which digital information
is encoded more laws of nature or man made?
·
What kinds of limitations does the binary
encoding of information impose on what can be represented inside a computer?
·
How accurately can human experience and
perception be captured or reflected in digital information?
Enduring Understandings
·
1.1 Creative development can be an
essential process for creating computational artifacts.
·
1.3 Computing can extend traditional forms
of human expression and experience.
·
2.1 A variety of abstractions built upon
binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
·
3.3 There are trade offs when representing
information as digital data.
AND
Introduction
to Programming
Monday 10-24-16 – Day B
- Computational Thinking
CT
- A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be
used to represent all digital data.
2.1
- Describe the variety of abstractions used to represent data.
[P3]
2.1.1
2.1.2 - Explain how binary sequences are used to represent digital
data. [P5]
3.3 -
There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
Objectives
Activator:
Open
up your Engineering Journal and review what you entered last class. Review the
Standards, Objectives, above, for today’s lesson. Click on https://studio.code.org/
and log in. Locate the Unit 2: and click ‘View course’.
Direct
Instruction:
As we embark on a new
unit about Data and Digital Information we need to get familiar with terminology
about data and different types of data files.
Recall
that a single character of ASCII text requires 8 bits. The technical term for 8
bits of data is a Byte.
A byte is
the standard fundamental unit (or “chunk size”) underlying most computing
systems today. You may have heard “megabyte”, “kilobyte”,
“gigabyte”, etc. which are all different amounts of a bytes. We’re going
to learn more about them today.
Introduction:
Recall
In a previous lesson (Unit 1 - Sending Formatted Text) we learned that in
addition to the actual text of a document, it is usually necessary to store the
formatting information that allows the text to be displayed correctly. We might
wonder just how much extra information, i.e. how many extra bytes, we need to
store when we include all of this formatting. Let’s find out!
If
a single ASCII character is one byte then
if we were to store the word “hello” in a plain ASCII text file in a
computer, we would expect it to require 5 bytes (or 40 bits) of memory.
What about a Microsoft Word document that contains the single
word “hello”?
Predict: “How many more bytes will a Word
document require to store the word “hello” than a plain text document?”
Guided
Instruction:
1)
Log
into code.org and go to Lesson 1. Click on the activity Guide.
2)
In
pairs research and provide answers to the worksheet.
Assessment
for/of learning: Completion of today’s class assignment.
Summarizer:
Mr.
PC will review each day what each student accomplished and the focus of
tomorrow.
Ticket
to Leave:
In
order to prepare you for your two AP CSP college-board performance tasks we need
to get use to reflecting on our daily work and experiences. This is a skill that
will prove to be useful when you go on to college, enter the workforce, and even
in every aspect of your everyday life. Every
day at the end of class you should save your work, open up your journal, put
down today’s date, and provide the following information.
1. Provide at least on new thing that you learned today – Refer to today’s Objectives
2. What did you accomplish today?
3. Indicate any problems or obstacles you experienced
4. How did you solve the problems or obstacles that you experienced?
Feel
free to provide screen shots of your daily work in order to illustrate your
day’s activities. Windows provides a Snipping
Tool within its provided Accessories that may be used for this purpose.
Homework:
·
Complete
your ticket to leave journal entry.
·
Now
that you have more artifact tools go to www.ted.com/talks
and choose a Computing Innovation which we have not discussed thus far. Explore
the computing innovation according to the requirements of the Explore
Performance Task. Using a new tool(s) to build your computing artifact, create
your artifact and be prepared to present to the rest of the class next week.
·
Make
sure that you meet all requirements found in the Explore Performance Task (link
provided after this week’s agenda), and provide all information requested
within your written responses.
·
This
practice is important in order to do well on your college board task that we
will be submitting prior to the end of the year so please do a good job, and
remember if you find a computing innovation that will work well for the task you
need to submit, take notes and put it on your back burner. And as always have
fun!
Tuesday
10-25-2016 – Day C – No Class
- Computational Thinking
CT
- A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be
used to represent all digital data.
2.1
- Describe the variety of abstractions used to represent data.
[P3]
2.1.1
2.1.2 - Explain how binary sequences are used to represent digital
data. [P5]
3.3 -
There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
Objectives
Activator:
Open
up your Engineering Journal and review what you entered last class. Review the
Standards, Objectives, above, for today’s lesson. Click on https://studio.code.org/
and log in. Locate the Unit 2: and click ‘View course’.
Assessment
for/of learning: Completion of today’s class assignment.
Summarizer:
Mr.
PC will review each day what each student accomplished and the focus of
tomorrow.
Ticket
to Leave:
In
order to prepare you for your two AP CSP college-board performance tasks we need
to get use to reflecting on our daily work and experiences. This is a skill that
will prove to be useful when you go on to college, enter the workforce, and even
in every aspect of your everyday life. Every
day at the end of class you should save your work, open up your journal, put
down today’s date, and provide the following information.
1. Provide at least on new thing that you learned today – Refer to today’s Objectives
2. What did you accomplish today?
3. Indicate any problems or obstacles you experienced
4. How did you solve the problems or obstacles that you experienced?
Feel
free to provide screen shots of your daily work in order to illustrate your
day’s activities. Windows provides a Snipping
Tool within its provided Accessories that may be used for this purpose.
Homework:
·
Complete
your ticket to leave journal entry.
·
Now
that you have more artifact tools go to www.ted.com/talks
and choose a Computing Innovation which we have not discussed thus far. Explore
the computing innovation according to the requirements of the Explore
Performance Task. Using a new tool(s) to build your computing artifact, create
your artifact and be prepared to present to the rest of the class next week.
·
Make
sure that you meet all requirements found in the Explore Performance Task (link
provided after this week’s agenda), and provide all information requested
within your written responses.
This
practice is important in order to do well on your college board task that we
will be submitting prior to the end of the year so please do a good job, and
remember if you find a computing innovation that will work well for the task you
need to submit, take notes and put it on your back burner. And as always have
fun!
Wednesday 10-26-2016 –
Day D
– Collaboration
CL
CPP - Computing Practice & Programming
CT - Computational Thinking
-
A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent
all digital data.
2.1
2.2 -
Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or create other
computational artifacts
3.1 -
People use computer programs to process information to gain insight and
knowledge.
3.3 -
There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
4.2 -
Algorithms can solve many but not all computational problems.
4.2.1 - Explain the
difference between algorithms that run in a reasonable time and those that do
not run in a reasonable time. [P1]
4.2.3 - Explain the
existence of undecidable problems in computer science. [P1]
4.2.4 - Evaluate algorithms analytically and empirically for efficiency, correctness, and clarity. [P4
Objectives
Activator:
Open
up your Engineering Journal and review what you entered last class. Review the
Standards, Objectives, above, for today’s lesson. Click on https://studio.code.org/
and log in. Locate the Unit 2: and click ‘View course’.
Direct
Instruction:
Guided
Instruction:
1)
Now
you’re going to get to try your hand at compressing some things on your own.
Assessment
for/of learning: Completion of today’s class assignment.
Summarizer:
Mr.
PC will review each day what each student accomplished and the focus of
tomorrow.
Ticket
to Leave:
In
order to prepare you for your two AP CSP college-board performance tasks we need
to get use to reflecting on our daily work and experiences. This is a skill that
will prove to be useful when you go on to college, enter the workforce, and even
in every aspect of your everyday life. Every
day at the end of class you should save your work, open up your journal, put
down today’s date, and provide the following information.
1. Provide at least on new thing that you learned today – Refer to today’s Objectives
2. What did you accomplish today?
3. Indicate any problems or obstacles you experienced
4. How did you solve the problems or obstacles that you experienced?
Feel
free to provide screen shots of your daily work in order to illustrate your
day’s activities. Windows provides a Snipping
Tool within its provided Accessories that may be used for this purpose.
Homework:
·
Complete
your ticket to leave journal entry.
·
Now
that you have more artifact tools go to www.ted.com/talks
and choose a Computing Innovation which we have not discussed thus far. Explore
the computing innovation according to the requirements of the Explore
Performance Task. Using a new tool(s) to build your computing artifact, create
your artifact and be prepared to present to the rest of the class next week.
·
Make
sure that you meet all requirements found in the Explore Performance Task (link
provided after this week’s agenda), and provide all information requested
within your written responses.
This
practice is important in order to do well on your college board task that we
will be submitting prior to the end of the year so please do a good job, and
remember if you find a computing innovation that will work well for the task you
need to submit, take notes and put it on your back burner. And as always have
fun!
Thursday 10-27-2016 –
Day E
Standard:
Demonstrate
proficiency in the use of computers and applications, as well as an
understanding of the concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity.
Objective:
Introduction
to computers and technology in relation to the 21st Century Skills
and Financial and Technology literacy necessary to be successful in today’s
technology oriented society.
Activator:
Open
up your Engineering Journal and review what you entered last class
Direct Instruction: Introduction to Cell Phone App Design
Setting up the APP Inventor and Emulator for Testing
You can set up App Inventor and start building apps in minutes.
The Designer and Blocks Editor now run completely
in the browser (aka the cloud). To see your app on a device while you
build it (also called "Live Testing"), you'll need to follow the steps
below.
If you are using an Android device and you have
a wireless internet connection, you can
start building apps without downloading any software to your computer. You will
need to install the App Inventor Companion App for your device. Choose Option
One below. This
option is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
For Class Use this Option: If you do not have an Android
device,
you'll need to install software on your computer so that you can use the
on-screen Android emulator. Choose Option Two below.
If you do not have a wireless internet
connection, you'll need to install software on your computer so that you
can connect to your Android device over USB. Choose Option
Three below. The
USB Connection option can be tricky, especially on Windows. Use this as a last
resort.
If you have
a computer, an Android device, and a WiFi connection, this is the easiest way to
test your apps.
If you don’t have an Android phone or tablet handy, you can
still use App Inventor. Have a class of 30 students? Have them work primarily on
emulators and share a few devices.
Some
firewalls within schools and organizations disallow the type of WiFi connection
required. If WiFi doesn’t work for you, try USB.
Note: Internet Explorer is not supported. We recommend Chrome or Firefox.
2)Check out the Designer and Blocks Editor Overview
3)
Setup Review the
following Beginner Tutorials
4)
Click on the Beginner
Tutorial above and follow the directions and watch the video tutorial for
the TalkToMe app. Develop the APP and
test using your cell phone Emulator.
Click Here to
Access Your Development Environment
Summarizer:
Mr. PC will review each day what each student accomplished and the focus of tomorrow.
Assessment for/of
learning:
Students are to be assessed on
the completion of today’s app development setup and the installation of the
App Companion for testing using cell phone emulation.
Ticket
to Leave:
In
order to prepare you for your two AP CSP college-board performance tasks we need
to get use to reflecting on our daily work and experiences. This is a skill that
will prove to be useful when you go on to college, enter the workforce, and even
in every aspect of your everyday life. Every
day at the end of class you should save your work, open up your journal, put
down today’s date, and provide the following information.
1. Provide at least on new thing that you learned today – Refer to today’s Objectives
2. What did you accomplish today?
3. Indicate any problems or obstacles you experienced
4. How did you solve the problems or obstacles that you experienced?
Feel
free to provide screen shots of your daily work in order to illustrate your
day’s activities. Windows provides a Snipping
Tool within its provided Accessories that may be used for this purpose.
Homework:
·
Complete
your ticket to leave journal entry.
·
Now
that you have more artifact tools go to www.ted.com/talks
and choose a Computing Innovation which we have not discussed thus far. Explore
the computing innovation according to the requirements of the Explore
Performance Task. Using a new tool(s) to build your computing artifact, create
your artifact and be prepared to present to the rest of the class next week.
·
Make
sure that you meet all requirements found in the Explore Performance Task (link
provided after this week’s agenda), and provide all information requested
within your written responses.
This
practice is important in order to do well on your college board task that we
will be submitting prior to the end of the year so please do a good job, and
remember if you find a computing innovation that will work well for the task you
need to submit, take notes and put it on your back burner. And as always have
fun!
Friday 10-28-2016 – Day
F
Activator:
Open
up your Engineering Journal and review what you entered last class. Review the
Standards, Objectives, above, for today’s lesson. Click on https://studio.code.org/
and log in. Locate the Unit 1: The Internet tile and click ‘View course’.
Direct Instruction and
Guided Instruction:
As
a class we will begin going through and discuss the AP CSP Practice Exam
Questions
Ticket
to Leave:
In
order to prepare you for your two AP CSP college-board performance tasks we need
to get use to reflecting on our daily work and experiences. This is a skill that
will prove to be useful when you go on to college, enter the workforce, and even
in every aspect of your everyday life. Every
day at the end of class you should save your work, open up your journal, put
down today’s date, and provide the following information.
1. Provide at least on new thing that you learned today – Refer to today’s Objectives
2. What did you accomplish today?
3. Indicate any problems or obstacles you experienced
4. How did you solve the problems or obstacles that you experienced?
Feel
free to provide screen shots of your daily work in order to illustrate your
day’s activities. Windows provides a Snipping
Tool within its provided Accessories that may be used for this purpose.
Homework: Due Next Wednesday.
NOTE: Tuesday No School – Teacher Professional Development Day and
Election Day
·
Complete
your ticket to leave journal entry.
·
Now
that you have more artifact tools go to www.ted.com/talks
and choose a Computing Innovation which we have not discussed thus far. Explore
the computing innovation according to the requirements of the Explore
Performance Task. Using a new tool(s) to build your computing artifact, create
your artifact and be prepared to present to the rest of the class next week.
·
Make
sure that you meet all requirements found in the Explore Performance Task (link
provided after this week’s agenda), and provide all information requested
within your written responses.
This
practice is important in order to do well on your college board task that we
will be submitting prior to the end of the year so please do a good job, and
remember if you find a computing innovation that will work well for the task you
need to submit, take notes and put it on your back burner. And as always have
fun!
Thanks for a great
week!
Mr. PC
Explore Performance Task Rubric
More Resources for
finding computing innovations:
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/
Tools
for building computing artifacts:
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
To Due: Create Digital
Portfolios for Performance Tasks Submissions. Our goal is to complete our
Explore Performance Task before the end of 2016.
·
Begin
preparing for the May 5th Exam with practice exam questions from AP training
google drive and the career board. Use online student response system for class
review and discussion.
Unit
1 Vocabulary