Computer Science A

Richard Kick

Richard Kick teaches math and computer science at Newbury Park High School in California.  Rich earned a Mathematics Education degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, and a master’s degree in Mathematics from Chicago State University.  He has taught AP Computer Science using Pascal (beginning in 1984), C++, and Java. After working as a C++ programmer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Rich served as a College Board exam reader, table leader, question leader, and Computer Science Test Development Committee member. He is a five-time Computer Science Principles Pilot instructor and former co-chair of the Computer Science Principles Development Committee. He is teaching two sections of AP Computer Science A and two sections of AP Computer Science Principles in the 2018-2019 school year.

Agenda

Day 1 

• Welcome and Introduction of the Participants and the Instructor
• Experienced teachers will share their perspectives on teaching APCS A.
• All teachers will share their top priorities for the week.
• Society Supporting the Expansion of Computer Science Education!
• Course Expectations, Final Project Description, Logistics, Materials, IDEs, etc.
• Introduction to AP Computer Science A – Course Description
  • http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/4483.html
• Teaching Strategies, Pedagogy, Procedural vs. Object Oriented Programming
• Starting an APCS A Course – Resources, Recruitment, Equity, Journals, etc.
• Fundamental Data Types, Objects, Declarations, Conditionals, Iteration
• Using BlueJ to create Java Programs – Procedural Examples and Object Oriented Examples
  • http://bluej.org/
• The String Class – Magpie Lab

Day 2 

• Gathering and Sharing AP* Computer Science A Resources
  • http://codingbat.com/java
  • http://webster.cs.washington.edu:8080/practiceit/index.jsp
  • http://ice.cc.gatech.edu/apexam_test/
  • http://codeinthebrowser.org/
  • http://technews.acm.org/2
• Simple Input and Output with Java – Scanner, JOptionPane
• Achieving Equity in APCS
• Interfaces and Polymorphism – The List Interface
  • http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/
• Writing programs for List Manipulations

Day 3

• Inheritance and Class Hierarchies – Elevens Lab (The Gridworld Case Study)
  • http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/151155.html
• Creating new Cards, Decks, Hands (Actors, Bugs, Critters from Gridworld classes)
• The AP Computer Science Exam
  • http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/exam/exam_information/2000.html
• AP Reading – Scoring AP Computer Science Exams
• Released Exams, AP Course Audit
  • http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/
• Sample Projects – Sudoku, SOS, PegGame, FunGrapher, Card and Deck, etc.

Day 4

• Sample Projects (continued)
• The future of AP Computer Science – Computer Science Principles
  • http://www.csprinciples.org/
• Conferences and Teacher Networking
  • http://csta.acm.org/
  • http://csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/sub/CSITConference.html
  • http://www.sigcse.org/sigcse2013/
  • http://apac.collegeboard.org/
• Completing the Final Project – Creating Assignments, Assessments, Activities, and Programs
• Sharing Renewed Perspectives
• Final Questions, Comments, and Planning for Future Communications