Computer Science Expectations
Check webpage basiccoolstuff.com and or moodle for assignments, solutions to homeworks, online quizzes, special project directions etc.
Teacher: Susan Barocas School Phone: 587-1344 Ext 2216 email: sbarocas@northampton-k12.us
Programming Environment = Alice programming language; Java
Text Resource: Learning to Program with Alice by Dann, Cooper and Pausch
ICT's Computer Science(Java) Curriculum
Extra Help Days: WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS
Simple Rules
Be Respectful and polite to everyone. It is important to have a classroom in which everyone is respected and valued. It is important to have a classroom that is free from social and racial oppression. Acts or speech ( including jokes ) which reflect oppression of any kind will not be tolerated.
We will often work using the Extreme Programming method. You will be paired with another student in order to write a program. One student is the "driver" at the keyboard. The other is the "navigator" giving instructions to the driver.
Be Punctual and Prepared. Tardies, according to school rules must be made up within five (5) school days. Tardies that are not made up promptly will be brought to the attention of the Assistant Principal for further action. You will be tardy if you are not in the classroom at the bell. This does not mean entering the class at the bell. Use the restroom in between classes. Excessive need ( out several times a week ) to be out of the class will be noted. Do not get up out of your seats before the bell rings. There is always more to do and not enough time in which to do it.
Be Considerate of the learning environment by keeping it safe and free from distractions.
Be Attentive: electronic devices, including music devices and cell phones are not allowed in class, will be confiscated if seen or heard in class, keep them in your backpacks, please.
Use of other software or internet sites not assigned by the teacher is not allowed. Do not use class time to check your mail, chat online, download games or music, or play online games. To do so will result in the loss of computer time according to school policy.
Basic Requirements
Notes for this course are kept on the class website and moodle. As notes are added, students are responsible for the concepts covered. Assignments for each day are also provided. If you are absent for any amount of time, you may log on to the website and catch up on the days computer activities.
During the first weeks of the course, we will use the programming environment "Alice" produced by Carneige Mellon University. The is an environment that contains and uses all the object oriented construct found it Java. Programs are produced using a drop and drag approach. This eliminates syntactic errors in code and allows for the student to concentrate on the logic of the program being written. The results of programming are revealed by the 3-D animation it produces. Students have immediate feed back on the logic of their programs
Alice is freely available at http://www.alice.org, so that students may download it for work at home.
We will learn to code in Java during the second half of the semester using Sun's Java. This is also freely available at
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.
Most of our work is hands on and done in the lab, but we also need to pay attention to reading, vocabulary and new concepts and algorithms as outlined in the notes. Programming is learned by experience and also by modeling what others have done before us. The notes and our book will provide the models that we need to be familiar with.
Assignments
To help you keep up with assignments, tests, quizzes, and projects, a webpage calendar is provided for you. Since you will proceed in chronological order, the dates of quizzes and tests will be noted. Please check assignments online if you are absent or miss the assignment in class for any reason.
Quizzes, Tests, and Final Exam
You will have tests after each chapter and you may have periodic Quizzes
If you are absent on a test or quiz day, a zero will be entered for your grade. You have the opportunity to make up the test only if your absence is excused. The test must be taken on the day of your return if you were absent only on the day of the test. For longer absences any test or work missed must be made up after one week’s time. Arrangements to make up missed work must be made within 2 school days of your return.
Grade Breakdown
The following rubric will be used to calculate your grade:
Final Grade - Exam 10%, Semester Average 90% Seniors with an average of 90 or better are exempt from the final.
Marking Periods 1 and 2: Points will be earned from small programming assignments, larger projects, tests, quizzes and a final exam.
Help and Tutoring If you need to make an appointment to talk to me at any time for extra help or extra time in the lab if you are falling behind.
ALICE - object oriented animation JAVA - object oriented programming
1) Design and Stepwise refinement 2) Built-in functions, expressions and simple control statements
3) Object oriented programming methods 4) Interactive Programming: events and event handling
5) Functions and Conditional execution (If/Else) 6) Definite (Loop) and Infinite Loops (While)
7) Repetition (recursion)
JAVA
1) Formatting Output 2) Keywords and Identifiers 3) Input/Output 4) Math operators 5) applets
6) Conditionals 7) While Loops 8) Classes 9) Loops 10) Reading and Writing Files 11) Arrays
The course will be paced in such a way as to allow time for an individual project at the end of the semester