Comp Sci

After school field trip to visit our teachers at their Etsy office! / November 2013

This is a semester-long survey course designed to offer students a hands-on introduction to Computer Science. Students will use their problem solving skills and creativity to build interactive programs using a freely available graphical programming language. We will also show some beautiful applications of computing that have changed the world, talk about the history of computing, and discuss current events related to technology. No previous knowledge of computer science or programming is required.

This class is a zero-period class offered by Erica Greene, Amy Ciavolino, Mike Pascual and Brian Papa in collaboration with TEALS, an organization that brings technologists into schools to teach introductory computer science courses.

Intro to Computer Science syllabus, 2013-14 // Class photos, 2013-14

Semester II (February – June 2014)

Class Wiki on GitHub:

https://github.com/imightbeamy/think-python/wiki

Semester I (September 2013 – January 2014) / Archive

Readings

* Feel free to print if you need to, but we encourage you to save paper by reading online.

Blown to Bits

Chapter 1 Reading PDF + Chapter 1 Questions PDF > due Thursday, September 19th
Chapter 3 Reading PDF + Chapter 3 Questions PDF > due Wednesday, October 9th
Chapter 4 Reading PDF + Chapter 4 Questions PDF > due Wednesday, October 23rd
Chapter 6 Reading PDF + Chapter 6 Questions PDF > due Wednesday, December 11th

Current Events

#1 – To come
#2 – Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class (PDF) + Questions (PDF) – due Monday, September 23rd
#3 – LAUSD launches its drive to equip every student with iPads (PDF) + LAUSD halts home use of iPads for students after devices hacked (PDF) + Questions (PDF) – due Monday, September 30th
#4 – Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science? (PDF) + Questions (PDF) – due Monday, October 7th
#5 – Same reading as above, new questions (PDF) – due Monday, October 21st
#6 – Facebook Eases Privacy Rules for Teenagers + Questions (PDF) – due Monday, October 28th
#7 – Ken Robinson: How Schools Kill Creativity (1-paragraph response; guidelines were emailed)- due Wednesday, November 6th
#8 – Why Did Snapchat Turn Down Three Billion Dollars? + Questions (PDF) – due Wednesday, November 27th
#9 – Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Learning How to Code – due Monday, December 16th

Projects

Project #1 Mario PDF > checkpoint is Monday, Sept 23rd, due Friday, Sept 27th
Project #2 Pong > checkpoint is Wednesday, October 9th, due Thursday, October 17th
Project #3 Scrabble PDF (with 1000 words (corrected), alphabet, and scrabble letter values) > due Friday, December 13th
Project #4 Bubble Sort PDF (with starter file) > due Wednesday, January 22nd