2018 term 2: week 8: Game Design

Programming students have finished up their work with Python programming for the term.  Students finished creating a program of their choice that demonstrates each of the concepts we learned this term working together to solve a problem.  As we get towards the final weeks of the class, we will spend some time with the Construct 2 game engine.  We will learn the basics of the engine, and do a few class demonstrations on how to create some basic game elements.  We will then have the opportunity to put a game together that students can continue to work on after the class is over.  This should be a nice enrichment project that allows students to be engaged while learning about something that is interesting to them.

2018 term 2: week 5 & 6: Define Functions and Program of Choice

Programming students will be learning to define and call their own functions using Python, then will spend some time taking all of our learned concepts and creating a program of their choice!

2018 term 2: week 4: Loops

Programming students have been introduced to Python programming!!  We have installed Python on our machines, along with Pycharm as your text editor and developer environment.  By now the class has mastered the print command, assignment statements, input, variables, and are working on if statements.  Next week we will be moving on to loops.  We will spend a lot of time with for loops and while loops.  I am very impressed with how well the class is doing, and seeing how they are able to solve computational problems with programming!

2018 term 2: week 3: Python

We have finished learning about the development cycle, and students have used this process to identity and solve computational problems, and have finished their assessment on using abstraction.  We will take a short amount of time on Monday to be sure everyone is caught up and have their program sheets turned in.  We will then install Python and Pycharm on the computers and will start learning the basics principles of how Python works as a programming language.  We will then start working with those basic principles and putting together our first programs.

2018 term 2: week 2: Development Cycle

Programming 1 is off to an awesome start so far this term!  I am really impressed with how quickly students are catching on and their growth-mindsets they are showing me!  We have finished learning about careers in programming and computer science.  Students started learning about key concepts of computer science and we have really studied  over algorithms.  We finished the week learning about software cycles and started putting together the development cycle we will be using to write our programs this term.  Students have installed software to use with our Finch Robots and will show me their understanding of the development cycle while programming their Finch Robots.  This week they will program keyboard controls, program automated movements with obstacle avoidance, LED lights, buzzer tones, light sensors, and much more.  Just typing this right now already has me excited for Monday to get here so we can have some fun with programming and robots!

2018 term 2: week 1: Careers in Computer Science

Programming students will be starting class on Monday!  The first few days will be discussing classroom procedures and expectations for this term.  We will spend time at the beginning of this term exploring career paths in computer science and programming.  Students will put together presentations that they will deliver to the class.  We will be presenting our findings on Friday.

NPHS TERM 4: PROGRAMMING 2

We are in term 4, and are ready for our first group of programming 2 students.  These students have successfully completed IT Fundamentals and Programming 1, and are ready for a capstone class experience.  We will do a quick review over IT Fundamentals and Programming 1 concepts to make sure we are all ready to go for this term, then will start our work learning about ethical and social implications of computer use in programming working environments.  I'm very excited about this new class, and can't wait to see how far our learning takes us this term!

NPHS Programming 1: Term 3: Week 3: Robotics Assessment

Well, good to see everybody survived the snow day!  Programming 1 students are working on their robotics with the finch robots again this week.  We have been working with various loop and timing concepts and utilizing them with the sensors on our finch robots.  We will finish with our assessment that covers our standard CIS.HS.7.22: Develop and use abstractions in computational artifacts.  Students will use our development cycle to create an application that allows users to use our robots as motion input controls for a pong-style video game that they will create.  Students will need to develop pseudocode that they will use as a guide to help them work their way through this problem.

Below is a little clip of a blue and gold salute to public schools that we did in class using the programmable LED light in our robots.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/956205108504784896

We will finish up with robots on Friday or Monday with a team-building/competition with our robots that classes always have a fun time with.  We will then be ready to move on to Python Programming!

programming 1: term 3: week 2: finch bots

We have created our first program today!  After learning about the development cycle, students used a block-based programming environment to program a maze.  When their user-controlled image sprite touches a border or obstacle, it goes back to the starting spot.  Students are going to use this same environment for the next few weeks to manipulate input and output of finch robots.  This is a simple style of programming that allows students to focus on the problem-solving aspect and fundamentals of programming.  This way, when we get to using Python later, the learning curve will be much more manageable.  It's been a lot of fun so far, but we are really starting to get to doing some cool things this week!