Computer Science and Information Technology Electives at the High School Don Sawyer October 18, 2011

Introductory Electives Visual Basic I and 2 Writing Programs for PCs Focus on Procedures 0.25 credit courses Web Programming I and 2 Web Based Programs HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL 0.5 credit courses Common Topics Variables and Assignment Statements Control Structures Introduction to Java Object-Oriented Programming 0.5 credit course Flash Programming Game-Oriented Programming 0.5 credit course

Follow-On Electives AP Computer Science Object-Oriented Programming Equivalent to First Semester College Level Computer Science Course Most Students take the exam and all have received 4s or 5s Advanced Java Programming Open to Students that have completed AP Computer Science In the Program Planning Guide for the past two years but never had enough eligible students to actually offer the course Covers advanced data structures, possibly Android OS

What Does Code Look Like? private Triangle triA, triB, selectedTri; private int x, y; public TrianglePanel( Color backColor ) { setBackground( backColor ); int [] x1 = { 50, 100, 150 }; int [] y1 = { 25, 25, 75 }; triA = new Triangle( x1, y1 ); int [] x2 = { 100, 250, 100 }; int [] y2 = { 150, 225, 300 }; triB = new Triangle( x2, y2 ); selectedTri = null; addMouseListener( new PanelListener() ); addMouseMotionListener( new PanelMotionListener() ); } Short snippet of java code from the AP Computer Science Class

What Does Code Look Like? Exericse 4 input{ text-align:center }.out{border-style:none; font-size:140%; text-align:left} function calcSlope(){ var x1 = parseFloat( document.frm.txtX1.value ); var y1 = parseFloat( document.frm.txtY1.value ); var x2 = parseFloat( document.frm.txtX2.value ); var y2 = parseFloat( document.frm.txtY2.value ); var c = ( y2 - y1 )/( x2 - x1 ); c = c.toFixed( 3 ); document.frm.txtC.value = "The slope is " + c; } Some source code from a web page in Web Programming 1

Who Takes These Electives The introductory electives are open to students in grades 9 to 12. AP Computer Science is open to grades 10 to 12. Generally successful in math Mostly boys (would love to have more girls take these courses)

Cost Teacher salary. Computer lab (though available for other uses) All software is free except for Flash and Dreamweaver AP Computer Science is the only course with a text book. All other courses rely on resources that either I develop or are free on-line. Go to to view course materials.

Robotics Club First year at high school. Lots of interest. Design, build, and program robots. Initial funds from parents ($2,000) and Home and School association ($200). Initial purchases include Lego Mindstorms, Finch, and Arduino Inventor Kits. Participating in MIT/NASA robot programming competition involving physics, advanced math, programming, and strategy. Placed 39 th out of 88 high schools in the nation in the first round. Details of competition at