• Setup
  • Methodology
  • References
  • Projects
  • Scaling AP Grades
  • Links

1. JCreator
The JCreator.com site. When you get to the site, click "Downloads" and look for the "Freeware" version.
You don't need the pay-for version.
jcreator.com

2. How do I get Java up and running on my system?
There are two things you need to do...
  1. First, go to the jcreator website and download the Sun J2SDK (second choice from bottom). The latest version as of 8/3/08 is JDK 6 Update 7. Save it to your computer (the desktop is fine), then run the installation program. Installing the SDK will give you the Java "compiler" and other useful tools

  2. Secondly, go back to jcreator and download the "classic" version of the JCreator development environment (third choice from bottom). Download to your system and run the installation program. The first time you run Jcreator, it will run you through a wizard...just click OK along the way and you will be ready to create your first program.

Maria and Gary Litvin's have detailed instructions for this installation process.
Here's the link... Getting started with Java at skylit.com

3. Now what?
If you have JCreator up and running, then try some of the sample programs in either of the above recommended books (or any book that you may have). Here's how:
  1. Click File | New Project. Type the name of the project. A project will keep all of your .java file(s) together for easy management.
  2. Click File | New File. Type the name of the file (jcreator will add the required .java extension automatically).
  3. Click OK to save the file. Now we can start typing in our Java program!
  4. Type in the source code for you Java program.
  5. Press F7 to compile your file(s).
  6. Press F5 to run your program!
If all went well, then your program should run! If not, well, back to JCreator for the wonderful world of debugging!

4. The Javadoc commenting convention
Javadoc comments



5. How to create Javadocs in JCreator.
Javadoc Tutorial




1. Syllabus and Planner
Syllabus
Daily Planner 2008-2009
Homework List

2007-2008 Daily Planner (old version)


2. Teaching Methodology
  1. First things first: What do we want to teach? Seinfeld…
  2. Computer Science Education: the present and the future
  3. Top Down vs. Bottom Up
  4. Lew’s Philosophy & Lew’s Plan
  5. “Guide on the side, not the sage on the stage”
  6. Read “good” code (Master and apprentice)
  7. Frequent formative assessment
  8. Long Term Programming Project (summative assessment)
  9. Searching / Sorting Role Plays
  10. Inquiry Learning…Long-Term Project
3. Establish project / file naming rules
  1. Always have "Project" at end of names of project (e.g. ArrayListProject, MyCritterProject)
  2. Always have students use directories to organize projects for quick retrieval

4. Variable / Method / Class naming rules
  1. Always begin with a letter
  2. Use a-z, A-Z, 0-9 ONLY (no underscores)
  3. Use camelNotation for variable and method names
  4. Use "final" whenever possible
  5. Use MEANINGFUL NAMES!!
  6. Begin class names with a capital letter with CamelNotation
  7. Brace spacing and indentation - ALL THE TIME with if, for, while statements
  8. ( Parenthesis spacing ) all the time!
  9. Use spacing liberally…memory is CHEAP!

5. Commenting rules
  1. Comment end curly brace of classes, methods, loops( while, for), and if statements
    while( ... )
       {
       } // end while loop
  2. Comment purpose of methods using Javadocs with @param and @return
  3. Comment purpose of loops (while, for)
  4. Comment purpose of if-else statements

6. Good OOP Programming Guidelines
  1. Do NOT replicate code that is already written somewhere else (CODE REUSE!)
  2. You are NOT coding only for yourself!! – Comment code and NO tricky stuff, please!!

1. APCentral
Here is the AP Central link at the College Board website.

2. APCS Course Description
Here is the College Board Course Description (aka Acorn book) from the AP Central College Board website. Here you will find the list of AP Computer Science subset (aka "what do I need to teach?)

3. APCS Teacher's Guide
Here is the College Board Teacher Guide from the AP Central College Board website. Here you will find teaching strategies and sample syllabi.

4. Quick References
5. Books
1. Fall Project
2. Spring Project (coming soon)
1. Scaling AP Test Scores
Here is the an Excel worksheet to convert grades received on an AP exam question to a class grade.

Here are some useful APCS links...

Teaching the binary number system.
Counting Octopus on YouTube

Ten Effective Study Habits (and six not so good ones...)
Study Habits

CS Unplugged - Teaching CS concepts without a computer
CS Unplugged

Ten reasons not to use a debugger by Gary Litvin
No Debugger

Who gives AP Credit?
AP Credit Policy

The Future of Computer Science
Educational Policy - CS Job Projections
Reality Check - CS Jobs (U of Texas Austin)
Computer Jobs Data
A study on the future of Computational Science - Project 2020
Bill Gates CNET
Bill Gates YouTube

Educational Organizations
Computer Science Teachers Assn (CSTA)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Instructor Sites
Robert Glen Martin
Stacy Armstrong
Maria Litvin
Dave Reed - AP Chief Reader
Chris Nevison - Former AP Chief Reader
Alternate Programming Environments
Alice
Dr. Scheme
MIT Scratch
Karel the Robot
Processing
Javabat
Parallax Basic and Java Bots
YouTube TankBot
YouTube MazeBot

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*AP is a registered trademark of the College Board.
© 2008 Michael Lew