1. Rapid Research - Format Showdown
UNIT 2 – LESSON 6
Rapid Research - Format Showdown

2. VOCABULARY ALERT
Arecibo Message = a 1974 interstellar message carrying basic info about humanity and Earth sent to globular star cluster M13 in the hope that extraterrestrial life might receive and decipher it.
Steganography = the science of hiding information from a third party
De-facto standards = a custom or convention that has a dominant position by public acceptance, such as .doc for Word documents
Performance Task = students complete specific tasks in two different areas throughout the course as part of the AP Exam for APCS-P
Objective Exam = the multiple choice portion of the AP Exam in May
5 = the highest score on the AP Exam
File extension = a group of letters after a period in a file name, indicating the format of the file
Widget = a generic term for a bit of self-contained code that displays a program, or a piece of a program, usually for teaching purposes in this class to let students experience something
Algorithm = a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer
Bytes = a group of binary digits or bits (usually eight) operated on as a unit
Abstraction – see next few slides for definitions

3. Vocabulary Alert: Abstraction: Removing unnecessary details to focus on the essential characteristics. To break problems up into separate parts which can then be solved separately and recombined to form a complete solution. To focus on and use something based only on what it does and without concern for how that functionality is accomplished.

4. Note: This is NOT the official AP® Performance Task that will be submitted as part of the Advanced Placement exam; it is a practice activity intended to prepare students for some portions of their individual performance at a later time.

5. Identify reliable sources of information when doing research Synthesize information taken from multiple online sources Create an artifact (video, image, slide, poster, etc.) to communicate information about a computing topic.

6.  Imagine I was comparing two different file formats for representing images. All I tell you that one of them is "better" than the other. What would you say?

7. There's lots of different ways to consider one format to be better than the other. This is also why there's so many different formats!

8. Complete a project with written response in a format similar to the AP® performance tasks. You will also create an artifact – something like a video, slide, poster, etc.

9. In the world of computer science, we call this abstraction - a mental tool that allows us to ignore low-level details when they are unnecessary. This ability to ignore small details is what allows us to develop complex protocols.

10. Let’s look at the Activity Guide for this project
Let’s look at the Activity Guide for this project. Let’s also look at an example of the written portion for this project – maybe not as bad as you think!!

11. Choosing Your Format:  All these formats have been used by someone at some point, so your job is to find out why and creatively play up that angle. Choose a format out of the container.

12. Conduct Your Research: This document is intended to serve primarily as a guide to you for identifying online sources of information. The skill you need to develop is identifying useful resources on your own and then synthesizing this information. Being presented with a structured way of doing this means you will have a model for how to complete your research when completing the actual Explore PT.

13. Begin One-Pager: Begin working on filling in the details of your one-pager as you research.

14. Complete One-Pager: You should continue filling in your one-pagers
Complete One-Pager: You should continue filling in your one-pagers. Reminder: record your sources of information as they go.

15. College Board Performance Task Descriptions: 

16. College Board Rubric for Performance Task: http://www. csprinciples

17. Computational Artifact: You will create separate kinds of computational artifacts Requirements for this artifact (noted below): A list of other formats you’d specifically like to target in your computational artifact Three key points you’d like to make in your artifact explaining the benefits of your format

18. Type in the template given in Code Studio Change headings NO MORE THAN ONE PAGE INCLUDING SOURCES! Due THURSDAY when you walk in the door.

19. Complete assessments and reflections in Code Studio.