Creative Computing (MS)

In this lesson, students will be introduced to HTML: the language for building web pages. Students will discover why HTML is important and how it works in order to start building their own web pages.

In this lesson we upgrade from simple tags to full HTML documents. We learn some new tags that let us put information in different places on the web page, and we learn about the nested tree structure of an HTML document.

In this lesson, students learn about formatting tags that let them modify the appearance of text and make their web pages look clear and aesthetically pleasing.

In this lesson, students learn how to add hyperlinks to their web pages using the <a> tag.

In this lesson, students learn how to add images to their own web pages using the <img> tag!

In this lesson, students learn how to add lists to their web pages and practice making different kinds of lists.

In this lesson, students learn how to create and add tables to their web pages!

In this lesson, students will use HTML styling to make their pages visually appealing and unique.

In this lesson, students will begin using CSS to add styling to their HTML pages.

In this lesson, students use CSS tag selectors to select all elements of the same kind (<table>, or <h1> for example) and give them all the same style.

In this lesson, students learn to use CSS class selectors to apply CSS styling to all HTML elements that share a specified class which allows students to be more specific when applying their styling.

In this lesson, students will use CSS Selectors by ID to select a single element to format on a webpage.

In this lesson, students learn what a URL is and what happens when they visit a URL.

In this project, students will be developing their first digital artifact: their very own website! This website will start off as their own personal homepage, and as students progress through the course, they can keep adding links to their favorite projects. By the end of the course this homepage will serve as their own personal portfolio website showcasing their work!

In this lesson, students are introduced to Karel the Dog and how Karel can be given a set of instructions to perform a simple task.

In this lesson, students build on their understanding of how Karel the Dog can be given a set of instructions to perform a simple task.

In this lesson, students are introduced to functions through the lens of teaching Karel a new trick - how to turn right! Students will learn how to define and call a function that teaches Karel how to turnRight.

In this lesson, functions will be used to teach Karel a new word or command. Using functions allows programs to be broken down into smaller pieces and makes it easier to understand.

In this lesson, students will learn the importance of writing readable code and how using the start function can help achieve this.

In this lesson, students learn top down design and decomposition as the processes of breaking big problems into smaller, manageable pieces. The functions improve the readability of the code and avoid repeated code.

In this lesson, students will learn how to utilize comments in their code to explain what their code is doing. Comments should include preconditions and postconditions. Preconditions are assumptions we make about what is true before a function is called in our program. Postconditions are what should be true after a function is called in our program.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to SuperKarel. SuperKarel includes commands like turnRight() and turnAround() since they are so commonly used. These commands come prepackaged with the SuperKarel library (API).

In this lesson, students learn how to use for loops in their programs. The for loop allows you to repeat a specific part of code a fixed number of times.

A for loops is written as follows:

for(var i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
    // Code to be repeated 4 times
}

• A condition is a function that returns a true/false answer.
• JavaScript uses if statements as a way to make decisions and execute specific code. If statements are helpful in writing code that can be used in different situations.

If and if/else statements allow Karel to handle different types of worlds and allow us to solve more general problems.

While loops allow us to repeat a section of code as long some condition is true.

In this lesson, students take a look at all of the control structures. Control structures can be selective, like if and if / else statements and are based on a condition. Other control structures are iterative and allow for repeated code like for loops and while loops. Basically, control structures control the way the commands execute.

In this lesson, students will test their knowledge of control structures in preparation for the upcoming Karel challenges. Control structures (like loops and if statements) are useful in building programs that can be applied in various Karel worlds.

In this lesson, students will learn the proper way to indent their code. Indentation is especially important when using multiple loops, functions, and if statements to show the structure of the code. Indentation provides a good visual approach to see which commands are inside vs. outside of a loop or if statement.

In this lesson, students will synthesize all of the skills and concepts learned in the Karel unit to solve increasingly challenging Karel puzzles.

In this lesson, students are introduced to coding with turtle graphics. Students will begin to recognize programs as sequences and groups of commands. Students will learn a few basic commands and then apply them right away by writing their first program.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the layout of Tracy’s grid world and will learn how to use coordinate pairs to locate Tracy on the coordinate plane. They will add to the list of commands they know and can use to create Tracy graphics.

In this lesson, students will learn how to use the left and right commands in order to move Tracy to more locations on the canvas. They will now have many commands that can be used to have Tracy create more complex graphics.

In this lesson, students are introduced to for loops. They learn how for loops simplify the process of making small changes to a program and help avoid repeating code. For loops are written like this:

for i in range (4):
    // Code to be repeated 4 times

In this lesson, students are introduced to the ability to turn Tracy at any angle. With this feature, Tracy can now draw diagonal lines which opens up the possibility to draw multiple shapes that weren’t previously available.

In this lesson, students learn how to use comments to describe their programs. Comments are helpful because they allow programmers to leave notes about the programs they are writing. Students will also learn about the different types of comments that can be used and the benefits of using them.

In this short lesson, students will be introduced to the rules for naming elements in their code. Variables and functions that are used inside their programs will be named by students, so the following guidelines should be obeyed to be sure that the programs written are readable and successful.

In this lesson, students are introduced to functions. They start with the basics of defining a function and why we need them and will revisit a program they coded earlier in the unit to rewrite it using functions.

In this lesson, students are able to add some flair to their turtle graphics programs by controlling color, pensize, and fill. These new commands are added to the list of commands that have been already practiced in order to allow for more creativity in student programs.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of Top Down Design. Top Down Design is the process of breaking down a program into functions or smaller parts to avoid repeated code and to make our programs more readable.

In this lesson, students will learn about a fundamental aspect of every programming language: Variables. A variable is something that stores information in a program that can be used later.

In this lesson, students will learn how to incorporate user input into their programs. Students will learn how to request user input as both strings and integers, where the input is stored, and how to convert strings and integers.

In this lesson, students will dive deeper into the concept of functions by exploring how to use parameters to customize their code.

In this lesson, students will expand their knowledge of for loops. They are aware that for loops execute the same lines of code a given number of times but will learn that i is actually a variable that can be used to control commands inside the loop as it is running.

In this lesson, students will learn the extended parameters that can be used to control the value of i in for loops. They will then be able to use the variable i to control much more of their code by setting specific values.

In this lesson, students will learn how to use If Statements which will allow them to use conditions to determine how their code should run.

In this lesson, students will learn how to expand on If Statements by including a way to have Tracy make decisions between multiple scenarios.

In this lesson, students will learn that while loops allow code to be executed repeatedly based on a condition. They will also be warned that infinite loops are created if the exit condition of the while loop is never met, causing the code inside the while loop to repeat continuously which causes the program to crash.

In this lesson, students will put together all the concepts they’ve learned thus far. They will be able to use top down design and to write programs that will solve complex problems.

In this lesson, students review content with a 25 question End-of-Unit Quiz.