Continuation of Unit 3: Programming and Algorithms

Create - AP Performance Task Prep - Introduction

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. Daily Journal Entries as seen in Daily Ticket to Leave are to be entered as part of your daily homework. All students will receive a homework grade on a weekly basis, and your journal will receive a project grade each mid-term and final semester.

IMPORTANT DATES:     Saturday February 2nd @ Auburn HS

                                      Saturday April 6th Mock Exam @ your school

Create Performance Task:  12 hours - Beginning March 25, 2019 (12 hours)

To Be Completed by April 19, 2019

AP Computer Science Principles Exam Day - FRI, MAY 10, 2019 (Noon – 2 hours)

This Week’s Agenda:

Continuation of Unit 3: Programming and Algorithms

Engineering Notebook Daily Entries

IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure to take a screen shot of every exercise you complete which includes the code you wrote and result of running your program, and add to your engineering notebook on a daily basis. Thanks.

Create Performance Task and College Board Exam Preparation

Monday Day B - 1-7-19 – Friday Day A 1–11-19

Monday Day B - 1-7-19 and Tuesday – 1-8-19

Introduction to Create Performance Task

Lesson 1: Create PT: Review the Task

Lesson 2: Create PT: Make a Plan

Standards Alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards

1.1 - Creative development can be an essential process for creating computational artifacts.

1.2 - Computing enables people to use creative development processes to create computational artifacts for creative expression or to solve a problem.

5.1 - Programs can be developed for creative expression, to satisfy personal curiosity, to create new knowledge, or to solve problems (to help people, organizations, or society).

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Describe the major components of the Create PT
• Describe how the Create PT Scoring Guidelines will be used to assess the task
• Evaluate sample Create PT submissions by applying the scoring guidelines
• Identify remaining questions about the Create PT
• Describe the elements and purpose of the Create PT
• Describe the scoring guidelines for the Create PT
• Evaluate sample Create PT components by applying the scoring guidelines

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 The ‘Create Performance Task - Prep’ tile and click ‘View course’.

Direct Instruction and Guided Practice:

The Create PT is in many ways straightforward: you complete a self-directed programming project and respond to prompts about your program and process. As you dig into the details of the task, however, you quickly come across some of the nuances of individual components of the task and how they're scored. This lesson is designed to introduce what these nuances are, and begin to provide some answers to the questions that will inevitably arise. Keep in mind that the next lesson provides a more structured set of responses to those questions, and so today students are just diving in to what the task looks like.

Review the Task

Introduce the Create PT

Remarks

Today we're going to start looking more deeply at the Create PT, focusing specifically on understanding:

• The different components of the Create PT
• How the task will be scored

Don't worry, you already have much of the knowledge and skills you need to do well on this task. The hardest part might be just understanding what is required of you.

First, we'll quickly read the task description and look at some examples and how they were scored.

Review Create PT Submission Requirements and Scoring Guidelines

Students can find links for all these activities in Code Studio. Here is what they can see:

AP CSP Performance Task Directions for Students - Resource

Create PT - Scoring Guidelines 2019 - College Board Doc

Prompt: Read the "Submission Requirements" section on pages 9-11, and (2) the scoring guidelines. For the scoring guidelines you can focus only on the first 3 columns for now: "Reporting Category", "Task", "Scoring Criteria". We'll dive into the decision rules later. Just get familiar with these documents.

I'm sure that right now you have a lot of questions about what this task will look like and how it will be scored. Before we answer them, let's look at some examples first.

Review Scoring Guidelines and Sample Tasks

Student Samples

The student samples used in this activity come directly from the AP Central website which shows in separate documents: student samples, scoring guidelines, and scoring notes. You can direct students there to find the samples, or look at others if you like.

Later in the activity we provide "annotated" versions that merge all three of these things together into one side-by-side view.

Create PT Sample Response C

• Create - Video: Sample C
• Create - Written Responses: Sample C

Prompt: This is a raw student submission - exactly what the student uploaded for their computational artifact and written responses.

• Did anything surprise you in looking at this sample?
• Do you think this scored well based on what you know about the scoring guidelines?

Remarks

Sample C actually received a 7/8 score. Let's look at the student response side-by-side with the scoring guidelines and the actual AP scorer's notes to see why.

The CB Create PT - Sample C (7/8) (links available on student page).

Prompt: 

What characteristics of this response made it score well?

Why specifically did this submission not earn Row 6?

What questions do you still have about the Scoring Guidelines or Task description?

Create PT Annotated Samples F 2018 (5/8), I 2018 (3/8), and J 2018 (1/8)

Remarks

Let's now take a look at some other samples.

• Create PT Annotated Sample F 2018 (5/8)
• Create PT Annotated Sample I 2018 (3/8)
• Create PT Annotated Sample J 2018 (1/8)

• Where and how specifically did this fall short?
• Was there one major problem that caused ripple effects through the scoring?
• Or were there several smaller issues?
• Try to point out specific aspects of the Scoring Guidelines or Submission Requirements.

Review Grumpy Cat Exemplar Create PT

Review: The Code.org curriculum team felt students could benefit from seeing an exemplar Create PT project in which they could see and even edit the entirety of the program code. The links below are to an exemplar Create PT submission and program code we believe would earn full credit on the 2018 Create Performance Task.

• Grumpy Cat Exemplar Create PT Code
• Grumpy Cat Exemplar Create PT Written Responses

Review Submissions of last year’s AP CSP Students

For the Students

• Create PT - Survival Guide 2018/2019 Make a Copy 
• Create PT Check-In Organizer - High Resolution PDF (download)
• AP CSP Performance Task Directions for Students - Resource
• Create PT - Scoring Guidelines 2019 - College Board Doc
• Code.org Create PT Template Make a Copy 
• Create PT Programming Journal

• AP CSP Performance Task Directions for Students - Resource
• Create PT - Scoring Guidelines 2019 - College Board Doc
• Create - Video: Sample C 2017
• Create - Written Responses: Sample C 2017
• Create PT Annotated Sample C 2017 (7/8)
• Create PT Annotated Sample F 2018 (5/8)Make a Copy 
• Create PT Annotated Sample I 2018 (3/8)Make a Copy 
• Create PT Annotated Sample J 2018 (1/8)Make a Copy 
• Grumpy Cat Exemplar Create PT Written Responses
• Grumpy Cat Exemplar Create PT Code
• AP Digital Portfolio Student Guide - Resource
• AP Digital Portfolio Access - College Board Site

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 today’s review of the Create Performance Task and class participation.

Ticket to Leave:

In order to prepare you for your next AP CSP college-board performance task 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:

Ø  In order to begin preparation for the next task to be submitted to the college-board, Please click on the following link and review the requirements for the Create Performance Task. Feel free to review the sample task submissions and the comments on how the performance task received its score.

Create Performance Task Rubric

Ø  Students should begin their research and definition of what their Create Performance Task will be and how it will meet the criteria setforth within the CP Task Rubric above.

Ø  Complete your ticket to leave journal entry.

Wednesday – 1-9-19

Lesson 9: Looping and Random Numbers

Standards Alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards

CL - Collaboration

• CL.L2:3 - Collaborate with peers, experts and others using collaborative practices such as pair programming, working in project teams and participating in-group active learning activities.

CPP - Computing Practice & Programming

• CPP.L2:5 - Implement problem solutions using a programming language, including: looping behavior, conditional statements, logic, expressions, variables and functions.
• CPP.L3A:3 - Use various debugging and testing methods to ensure program correctness (e.g., test cases, unit testing, white box, black box, integration testing)
• CPP.L3A:4 - Apply analysis, design, and implementation techniques to solve problems (e.g., use one or more software lifecycle models).

CT - Computational Thinking

• CT.L2:6 - Describe and analyze a sequence of instructions being followed (e.g., describe a character’s behavior in a video game as driven by rules and algorithms).
• CT.L3A:1 - Use predefined functions and parameters, classes and methods to divide a complex problem into simpler parts.
• CT.L3A:3 - Explain how sequence, selection, iteration, and recursion are building blocks of algorithms.
• CT.L3B:4 - Evaluate algorithms by their efficiency, correctness, and clarity.

Computer Science Principles

4.1 - Algorithms are precise sequences of instructions for processes that can be executed by a computer and are implemented using programming languages.

5.1 - Programs can be developed for creative expression, to satisfy personal curiosity, to create new knowledge, or to solve problems (to help people, organizations, or society).

5.3 - Programming is facilitated by appropriate abstractions.

5.4 - Programs are developed, maintained, and used by people for different purposes.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Use a loop in a program to simplify the expression of repeated tasks.
• Identify appropriate situations in a program for using a loop.
• Use random values within a loop to repeat code that behaves differently each time it is executed.

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 3: The ‘Intro to Programming’ tile and click ‘View course’.

Direct Instruction:

Vocabulary

• For Loop: Loops that have a predetermined beginning, end, and increment (step interval).
• Loop: The action of doing something over and over again.

Purpose

Loops are a relatively straightforward idea in programming - you want a certain chunk of code to run repeatedly - but it takes a little practice to get good at controlling loops and recognizing how and where in your programs to use them. The for loop in JavaScript (and many other programming languages) is designed to be used for both simple and sophisticated programming tasks, thus it has a lot of syntax to it that will be explained in the future. In this lesson, the block-based form of the for loop exposed to students is effectively a simple repeat loop - it only lets them change a number that dictates how many times the loop repeats.

Random numbers are also used more (much more) in this lesson as an effective way to experiment with loops. Creating some randomly-generated output with each iteration of the loop is good visual feedback that the loop is running the way you expect. It also helps you explore the ranges of possible outputs, which tells you more about what your program can and cannot do.

Tutorial - Loops - Video (download)

Guided Instruction:

As we have developed as programmers, we have focused on the process of breaking down large tasks into smaller pieces and assigning each piece a function.

When we break down a large task, often we will find that some portion of the task needs to be repeated many times. As programmers, we would simply call the same function many times. This might work if we need to call the same function five times, but if that function needs to be run 1,000,000 times, we’ll need a better solution.

Today we’ll be exploring how a programming construct called a loop solves this problem by allowing us to repeat a set of commands many times.

We’ll also practice looping through commands many times with random input, therefore giving us many instances of random output.

Just as we saw yesterday, this will be both useful for testing our code and also for developing more variety in our drawings.

1)   Log into code.org and go to Unit 3: Lesson 9.

2)   Complete all of the programming challenges. Make sure to read all documentation for the given API before attempting to use. When you have successfully completed a challenge take a screen shot using the Snipping tool, and add to your Engineering Notebook.

3)   Complete the practice written response in order to begin preparing for the Create Performance Task

4)   Complete the lesson assessment

When to use Functions versus Loops

While you can get code to function similarly with a function or a loop the general rule of thumb is:

• Write a function when you have a piece of code - a procedure - that you might reuse in other places in your program.
• A function might also help you encapsulate a solution to a common problem in one place that you can call on repeatedly with different inputs (e.g. drawSquare(size))
• Writing a function is often more of a design decision. You are trying to encapsulate and abstract details so you think about other parts of a larger program

• Write a loop when there is something you need to do over and over again and it doesn’t make sense to split it up any more.
• Writing a loop is more of an algorithmic decision - you actually just need repetitious behavior to solve some problem.
• For example, we don’t want to manually call functions many times in a row. If you’re calling the same function many times in a row, it’s time to make a loop.

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 Lesson 9 challenges and assessment exercises. All information should be completed online within code.org.  Thanks

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: 

Ø  In order to begin preparation for the next task to be submitted to the college-board, Please click on the following link and review the requirements for the Create Performance Task. Feel free to review the sample task submissions and the comments on how the performance task received its score.

Create Performance Task Rubric

Ø  Students should begin their research and definition of what their Create Performance Task will be and how it will meet the criteria setforth within the CP Task Rubric above.

Ø  Complete your ticket to leave journal entry.

Thursday Day G - 2-8-18 and Friday Day H – 2-9-18

Lesson 10: Practice PT - Design a Digital Scene

Standards Alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards

CL - Collaboration

CL.L2:3 - Collaborate with peers, experts and others using collaborative practices such as pair programming, working in project teams and participating in-group active learning activities.

CPP - Computing Practice & Programming

CPP.L2:5 - Implement problem solutions using a programming language, including: looping behavior, conditional statements, logic, expressions, variables and functions.

CPP.L3A:3 - Use various debugging and testing methods to ensure program correctness (e.g., test cases, unit testing, white box, black box, integration testing)

CPP.L3A:4 - Apply analysis, design, and implementation techniques to solve problems (e.g., use one or more software lifecycle models).

CT - Computational Thinking

CT.L2:6 - Describe and analyze a sequence of instructions being followed (e.g., describe a character's behavior in a video game as driven by rules and algorithms).

CT.L3A:1 - Use predefined functions and parameters, classes and methods to divide a complex problem into simpler parts.

CT.L3A:3 - Explain how sequence, selection, iteration, and recursion are building blocks of algorithms.

CT.L3B:4 - Evaluate algorithms by their efficiency, correctness, and clarity

Computer Science Principles

2.2 - Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or create other computational artifacts

2.2.1 - Develop an abstraction when writing a program or creating other computational artifacts. [P2]

• 2.2.1C - An abstraction generalizes functionality with input parameters that allow software reuse.

2.2.2 - Use multiple levels of abstraction to write programs. [P3]

• 2.2.2A - Software is developed using multiple levels of abstractions, such as constants, expressions, statements, procedures, and libraries.
• 2.2.2B - Being aware of and using multiple levels of abstraction in developing programs helps to more effectively apply available resources and tools to solve problems.

2.2.3 - Identify multiple levels of abstractions that are used when writing programs. [P3]

• 2.2.3A - Different programming languages offer different levels of abstraction.
• 2.2.3B - High level programming languages provide more abstractions for the programmer and make it easier for people to read and write a program.

4.1 - Algorithms are precise sequences of instructions for processes that can be executed by a computer and are implemented using programming languages.

4.1.1 - Develop an algorithm for implementation in a program. [P2]

• 4.1.1D - Iteration is the repetition of part of an algorithm until a condition is met or for a specified number of times.

5.1 - Programs can be developed for creative expression, to satisfy personal curiosity, to create new knowledge, or to solve problems (to help people, organizations, or society).

5.1.2 - Develop a correct program to solve problems. [P2]

• 5.1.2B - Developing correct program components and then combining them helps in creating correct programs.
• 5.1.2C - Incrementally adding tested program segments to correct, working programs helps create large correct programs.

5.1.3 - Collaborate to develop a program. [P6]

• 5.1.3A - Collaboration can decrease the size and complexity of tasks required of individual programmers.
• 5.1.3B - Collaboration facilitates multiple perspectives in developing ideas for solving problems by programming.
• 5.1.3C - Collaboration in the iterative development of a program requires different skills than developing a program alone.
• 5.1.3D - Collaboration can make it easier to find and correct errors when developing programs.
• 5.1.3E - Collaboration facilitates developing program components independently.
• 5.1.3F - Effective communication between participants is required for successful collaboration when developing programs.

5.3 - Programming is facilitated by appropriate abstractions.

5.3.1 - Use abstraction to manage complexity in programs. [P3]

• 5.3.1A - Procedures are reusable programming abstractions.
• 5.3.1C - Procedures reduce the complexity of writing and maintaining programs.
• 5.3.1D - Procedures have names and may have parameters and return values.
• 5.3.1F - Parameters generalize a solution by allowing a function to be used instead of duplicated code
• 5.3.1G - Parameters provide different values as input to procedures when they are called in a program.
• 5.3.1L - Using lists and procedures as abstractions in programming can result in programs that are easier to develop and maintain.

5.4 - Programs are developed, maintained, and used by people for different purposes.

5.4.1 - Evaluate the correctness of a program. [P4]

• 5.4.1C - Meaningful names for variables and procedures help people better understand programs.
• 5.4.1D - Longer code blocks are harder to reason about than shorter code blocks in a program.
• 5.4.1E - Locating and correcting errors in a program is called debugging the program.
• 5.4.1F - Knowledge of what a program is supposed to do is required in order to find most program errors.
• 5.4.1G - Examples of intended behavior on specific inputs help people understand what a program is supposed to do.
• 5.4.1H - Visual displays (or different modalities) of program state can help in finding errors.
• 5.4.1I - Programmers justify and explain a program’s correctness.
• 5.4.1J - Justification can include a written explanation about how a program meets its specifications.
• 5.4.1K - Correctness of a program depends on correctness of program components, including code blocks and procedures.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Write programs that address one component of a larger programming problem and integrate with other similarly designed programs.
• Collaborate to break down a complex programming problem into its component parts.
• Use code written by other programmers to complete a larger programming task.
• Write responses to AP-style prompts

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 3: The ‘Intro to Programming’ tile and click ‘View course’.

Direct Instruction:

Abstraction is an important tool in programming, not only because it allows individual programmers to break down complex problems, but because it enables effective forms of collaboration. Once a problem has been broken down into its component parts, teams of programmers (sometimes dozens or more) can attack individual components of that problem in parallel. This style of programming requires clear communication and a shared understanding of the high-level requirements of the software. If implemented carefully, however, it can be an effective strategy for rapidly producing large and complex pieces of software.

• Design a Digital Scene - Project Guide 2019 - Project Guide
• Design a Digital Scene - AP Rubric 2019 - AP Rubric
• Design a Digital Scene - Project and Programming Rubric

Guided Instruction:

1.   Log into code studio, Go to Unit 3 and Lesson 10 and proceed through today’s exercises.

Sharing your code:

After students create a program which contains their own functions they’ll need to get the code to their classmates and vice versa so that they can copy their partners’ functions into their own projects.

Students will need some way of recombining their code. Possible solutions are:

• emailing links to their individual code
• creating a shared document / spreadsheet into which students can paste links

These are the bullet points - a more complete How-To guide viewable for students is in code studio.

Share Code

• Click the Share button at the top of the page. link
• Copy/paste the URL for the share - send to partners, or put in place whole team can access.

Retrieve code from Shared Project

• Open shared link
• Click on “Built on Code Studio” button at the bottom
• Then Click “How it Works” - this will open the project in App Lab
• Click “Remix” button to be able to edit the code.
• Copy whatever you need, paste into your project

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 today’s lesson in the introduction to Programming, Unit 3, Lesson 10.

Ticket to Leave:

In order to prepare you for your next AP CSP college-board performance task 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:

Ø  In order to begin preparation for the next task to be submitted to the college-board, Please click on the following link and review the requirements for the Create Performance Task. Feel free to review the sample task submissions and the comments on how the performance task received its score.

Create Performance Task Rubric

Ø  Students should begin their research and definition of what their Create Performance Task will be and how it will meet the criteria setforth within the CP Task Rubric above.

Ø  Complete your ticket to leave journal entry.

Thanks for a great week!

Mr. PC 

Preparation of your AP CSP Digital Portfolios: Click on the link below.

Student Digital Portfolio Guide – Save a copy of the Student Digital Portfolio Guide to your Google Drive

Ø  Please review the Student Digital Portfolio Guide and follow the directions for setting up your digital portfolio for your AP CSP course. Thanks.

Online Explore Performance Task Resources:

• Explore PT Planning Organizer - High Resolution PDF
• Explore PT Survival Guide - Student Guide Make a Copy 
• AP CSP Performance Task Directions for Students - College Board Student Handout
• Explore Performance Task - Scoring Guidelines 2018 - College Board Doc

AP CSP Performance Task Directions for Students - College Board Student Handout

• Explore - Samples

Explore Performance Task Rubric

More Resources for finding computing innovations:

http://www.ted.com/talks

www.digg.com

http://www.teachersdomain.org

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/

Tools for building computing artifacts:

https://sites.google.com/view/cool-tools-for-schools/home

To Do: Create Digital Portfolios for Performance Tasks Submissions. Our goal is to complete our Explore Performance Task before the end of 2018.

UNIT 1 Overview: The Internet:

This unit explores the technical challenges and questions that arise from the need to represent digital information in computers and transfer it between people and computational devices. The unit then explores the structure and design of the internet and the implications of those design decisions.

In this unit students learn how computers represent all kinds of information and how the Internet allows that information to be shared with millions of people.

The first chapter explores the challenges and questions that arise when representing information in a computer or sending it from one computer to another. It begins by investigating why on-off signals, also known as binary signals, are used to represent information in a computer. It then introduces the way common information types like text and numbers are represented using these binary signals. Finally, it illustrates the importance of establishing shared communication rules, or protocols, for successfully sending and receiving information.

In the second chapter, students learn how the design of the internet allows information to be shared across billions of people and devices. Making frequent use of the Internet Simulator, they explore the problems the original designers of the internet had to solve and then students “invent” solutions. To conclude the unit, students research a modern social dilemma driven by the ubiquity of internet and the way it works.

Chapter 1: Representing and Transmitting Information

Big Questions

Enduring Understandings

·         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.

·         6.2 Characteristics of the Internet influence the systems built on it.

7.2 Computing enables innovation in nearly every field.

Unit 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary

• Innovation - A novel or improved idea, device, product, etc, or the development thereof.
• Binary - A way of representing information using only two options.
• Bit - A contraction of "Binary Digit". A bit is the single unit of information in a computer, typically represented as a 0 or 1.
• Bandwidth - Transmission capacity measure by bit rate
• Bit - A contraction of "Binary Digit". A bit is the single unit of information in a computer, typically represented as a 0 or 1.
• Bit rate - (sometimes written bitrate) the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. e.g. 8 bits/sec.
• Latency - Time it takes for a bit to travel from its sender to its receiver.
• Protocol - A set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data between devices.
• ASCII - ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is the universally recognized raw text format that any computer can understand.
• code - (v) to write code, or to write instructions for a computer.
• IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force - develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards and protocols, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP).
• Internet - A group of computers and servers that are connected to each other.
• Net Neutrality - the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by Internet Service Providers
• IP Address - A number assigned to any item that is connected to the Internet.
• Packets - Small chunks of information that have been carefully formed from larger chunks of information
• DNS - The service that translates URLs to IP addresses.
• HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol - the protocol used for transmitting web pages over the Internet
• Net Neutrality - the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by Internet Service Providers.
• TCP - Transmission Control Protocol - provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of packets on the internet. TCP is tightly linked with IP and usually seen as TCP/IP in writing.

Unit 1: Chapter 2: Inventing the Internet

Big Questions

Enduring Understandings

·         2.1 A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.

·         6.1 The Internet is a network of autonomous systems.

·         6.2 Characteristics of the Internet influence the systems built on it.

·         7.3 Computing has a global affect -- both beneficial and harmful -- on people and society.

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.

This unit explores the way large and complex pieces of digital information are stored in computers and the associated challenges. Through a mix of online research and interactive widgets, students learn about foundational topics like compression, image representation, and the advantages and disadvantages of different file formats. To conclude the unit, students research the history and characteristics of a real-world file format.

Chapter 1: Digital Information

Big Questions

Enduring Understandings

Vocabulary

• Heuristic - a problem solving approach (algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where finding an optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible.
• Lossless Compression - a data compression algorithm that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.
• Image - A type of data used for graphics or pictures.
• metadata - is data that describes other data. For example, a digital image may include metadata that describe the size of the image, number of colors, or resolution.
• pixel - short for "picture element" it is the fundamental unit of a digital image, typically a tiny square or dot which contains a single point of color of a larger image.
• RGB - the RGB color model uses varying intensities of (R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue light are added together in to reproduce a broad array of colors.
• Lossy Compression - (or irreversible compression) a data compression method that uses inexact approximations, discarding some data to represent the content. Most commonly seen in image formats like .jpg.
• Abstraction - Pulling out specific differences to make one solution work for multiple problems.

Unit 3 - Intro to Programming

In Unit 3, students explore the fundamental topics of programming, algorithms, and abstraction as they learn to programmatically draw pictures in App Lab. An unplugged sequence at the beginning of the unit highlights the need for programming languages as well as the creativity involved in designing algorithms. Students then begin working in App Lab where they use simple commands to draw shapes and images using a virtual “turtle.” As they’re introduced to more complex commands and programming constructs, students learn to break down programming problems into manageable chunks. The unit ends with a collaborative project to design a digital scene.

Chapter 1: Intro to Programming

Big Questions

Enduring Understandings

Unit 3 Vocabulary

Vocabulary

• Algorithm: A precise sequence of instructions for processes that can be executed by a computer
• High Level Programming Language: A programming language with many commands and features designed to make common tasks easier to program. Any high level functionality is encapsulated as combinations of low level commands.
• Low Level Programming Language: A programming language that captures only the most primitive operations available to a machine. Anything that a computer can do can be represented with combinations of low level commands.
• Iterate: To repeat in order to achieve, or get closer to, a desired goal.
• Selection: A generic term for a type of programming statement (usually an if-statement) that uses a Boolean condition to determine, or select, whether or not to run a certain block of statements.
• Sequencing: Putting commands in correct order so computers can read the commands.
• Pair Programming: A method of programming in which two programmers write code using a single computer. One programmer in the "driver" role uses the mouse and keyboard to actually write the code while a second acts as a "navigator", keeping track of the big picture, catching errors, and making suggestions. Programmers switch roles frequently and communicate throughout the process.
• Turtle Programming: a classic method for learning programming with commands to control movement and drawing of an on-screen robot called a "turtle". The turtle hearkens back to early implementations in which children programmed a physical robot whose dome-like shape was reminiscent of a turtle.
• Function: A named group of programming instructions. Functions are reusable abstractions that reduce the complexity of writing and maintaining programs.
• Top Down Design: a problem solving approach (also known as stepwise design) in which you break down a system to gain insight into the sub-systems that make it up.
• API: a collection of commands made available to a programmer
• Documentation: a description of the behavior of a command, function, library, API, etc.
• Hexadecimal: A base-16 number system that uses sixteen distinct symbols 0-9 and A-F to represent numbers from 0 to 15.
• Library: a collection of commands / functions, typically with a shared purpose
• Parameter: An extra piece of information passed to a function to customize it for a specific need
• For Loop: Loops that have a predetermined beginning, end, and increment (step interval).
• Loop: The action of doing something over and over again.

Unit 4 - Big Data and Privacy

In this unit students explore the technical, legal, and ethical questions that arise from computers enabling the collection and analysis of enormous amounts of data. In the first half of the unit, students learn about both the technological innovations enabled by data and the privacy and security concerns that arise from collecting it. In the second half of the unit, students learn how cryptography can be used to help protect private information in the digital age.

Chapter 1: Big Data and Privacy

Big Questions

Enduring Understandings

Unit 4 Vocabulary

Vocabulary

• Big Data: a broad term for datasets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate.
• Moore's Law: a predication made by Gordon Moore in 1965 that computing power will double every 1.5-2 years, it has remained more or less true ever since.
• One-pager: A business/corporate term for a one-page document that summarizes a large issue, topic or plan.
• Caesar Cipher : a technique for encryption that shifts the alphabet by some number of characters
• Cipher: the generic term for a technique (or algorithm) that performs encryption
• Cracking encryption: When you attempt to decode a secret message without knowing all the specifics of the cipher, you are trying to "crack" the encryption.
• Decryption: a process that reverses encryption, taking a secret message and reproducing the original plain text
• Encryption: a process of encoding messages to keep them secret, so only "authorized" parties can read it.
• Random Substitution Cipher: an encryption technique that maps each letter of the alphabet to a randomly chosen other letters of the alphabet.
• Computationally Hard: a "hard' problem for a computer is one in which it cannot arrive at a solution in a reasonable amount of time.
• asymmetric encryption: used in public key encryption, it is scheme in which the key to encrypt data is different from the key to decrypt.
• modulo: a mathematical operation that returns the remainder after integer division. Example: 7 MOD 4 = 3
• Private Key: In an asymmetric encryption scheme the decryption key is kept private and never shared, so only the intended recipient has the ability to decrypt a message that has been encrypted with a public key.
• Public Key Encryption: Used prevalently on the web, it allows for secure messages to be sent between parties without having to agree on, or share, a secret key. It uses an asymmetric encryption scheme in which the encryption key is made public, but the decryption key is kept private.
• Antivirus Software: usually keeps big lists of known viruses and scans your computer looking for the virus programs in order to get rid of them.
• DDoS Attack: Distributed Denial of Service Attack. Typically a virus installed on many computers (thousands) activate at the same time and flood a target with traffic to the point the server becomes overwhelmed.
• Firewall: software that runs on servers (often routers) that only allows traffic through according to some set of security rules.
• Phishing Scam: a thief trying to trick you into sending them sensitive information. Typically these include emails about system updates asking you send your username and password, social security number or other things.
• SSL/TLS: Secure Sockets layer / Transport Layer Security - An encryption layer of HTTP that uses public key cryptography to establish a secure connection.
• Virus: a program that runs on a computer to do something the owner of the computer does not intend.