Final Program (week 9)

I'm really going to miss this group of kids in this class!  Programming was great this term!  I think everybody learned a lot and has a good set of skills they can take with them wherever they go in future school and careers.  Next week we will be finishing up our game designs.  We will then use Python to create a program of our choice that demonstrates each concept we learned all term, from variables, input, output, print, lists, dictionaries, read and write to file, modules, and more.  We will have all of this finished up by Wednesday, then on Thursday we will make sure kids have access to all the resources we have been using this term (they are all free), and then can put it all on their google drive, thumb drive, or whatever.  This way if kids want to continue coding and learning, they have all of their programs and documentation from this term.

Statistics and Graphing (week 8)

Programming 1 students did a great job of learning how to write programs with Python that read and manipulate external txt files.  I know the programs could get quite challenging (we nicknamed one of them "The Rage Maker"), and really pushed this class, but I was so happy with how they responded the challenges!  Next week we will be learning how to make programs that deal with statistics and graphing.  As we near the completion of this, we will get into some game programming and development before we get ready for our big final program project.

Read/Write to File (week 7)

Students finished learning about lists, dictionaries, and tuples in programming this week.  We finished up with a temperature conversion application that students thought was our most challenging yet!  Next week we will learn how to use Python to read and write to external files!

lists and dictionaries and tuples OH MY! (week 6)

Every student in programming 1 has successfully demonstrated the standard of using features and systems of a modern programming language!  We demonstrated this with creating a dice-roll simulator.  Because we finished a day early, Friday we did an enrichment activity where we started creating a text adventure game using all of the concepts we have learned up to this point!  I think the kids would agree for as challenging as it was, they were having a lot of fun working through this project.

The next standard we will work towards is making a program to read and write to an external file.  Before we work on this assessment, we will do some work with lists, dictionaries, and tuples, as they are what we will be reading and writing from for the assessment.  These kids have really been working hard, and have demonstrated a lot of growth this term, and I am really proud of them as they are taking a class that is very difficult and intimidating for some to sign up for.

while loops, if/then and more (week 5)

We have been working with python and students are really catching on fast!  We have put together some programs that guess numbers, applications for hardware stores, and more!  This week we are going to be working on while statements and if/then concepts.  Students will also learn to import modules to create a dice roll simulator.

Below are a few quick tutorials of some things we will be looking at.

Intro to Python (week 4)

Last week we finished up with the Finch Bots.  Students created a game with motion controls, and we ended with a fun match of "Finch Bot Ball Bowl #1".  Check out my twitter at @np_techbiz to see some videos from the action!  This week we will be starting in some advanced coding where we actually write lines of code.  We will be using Python as it is a very popular language used by many college intro to computer science courses.  The work we will be using will address the state standard where students will be able to understand modern use of programming to solve complex problems.  Below are just a few simple getting started tutorials that show what we will be doing on the first day of Python programming.

variables (week 3)

This week we started learning about input/output and variables using Finch Robots.  Programming students were very fast learners and really demonstrating their knowledge very quickly!  Every student passed their development process assessment, and we have been following that process for each activity in class.

Students first made a program that allowed them to use their keyboard to control a finch robot.  Students then used the image sensor of the finch and programmed the finch to navigate around obstacles.  Finally we had a Finch Got Talent singing competition and using different pitch values for their finch buzzers, students programmed their finch to play songs.

Check out tweets from this week at @np_techbiz if you want to see video from the finch bots in action during class!

Development Cycle

This week we built our background knowledge in the field of computer science.  Students researched a specific field of study in computer science, presented their findings to the class, then wrote a reflection about the field they would most like to follow as a career choice.

Next, we talked about the development cycle.  We compared development cycles to various companies and talked pros and cons of each method.  The development cycle we will be using in our class has 5 steps.

1. Define the Problem
2. Develop/Plan (pseudocode)
3. Code
4. Test/Debug
5. Publish

We emphasize that this is really a cycle and that once publishing is done, we go back to number 1 to continue to make our program better.

Next week we will be utilizing this development cycle to create a basic program that will allow users to utilize a keyboard to move an image sprite through a created maze.  Once students are finished, we will go back through the cycle one more time to improve our program in a way each student sees fit.

Welcome Class!

Welcome back everybody!  I'm really excited to be teaching computer programming this year!  We will be starting off with a brief overview of the field of computer science, then will learn about the development cycle, and will then jump right in to coding!  I have a lot of activities that I am excited to try out and am looking forward to explore coding with you all!