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Topic List
- The "Experiment"
- Catalog Information
- Textbook
- Grading
- Academic Conduct
- Accessibility
The "Experiment"
Computer Sciences Principles was created as a pilot course in 2011 as part of the
AP Computer Science Principles Project.
The goal was to create a curriculum
for a new high school Advanced Placement course that is appropriate for
general students. (AP CS A Java Programming will continue.) Think of UW's
class as the class you would skip if you took the new AP CS
Principles class in high school and passed the AP test on it.
Or you can think of CSE120 as a super fun class where you learn amazing stuff with and about computers.
Catalog Information
- Course Number CSE 120
- Course Title: Computer Science Principles
- Offering: Winter, 2013
- Lectures [50 minutes]: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 12:30-1:20, room TBA
- Labs [closed, 50 minutes]: Tuesday, Thursday 12:30-1:20, or 1:30-2:20, MGH 044
- Credit Hours: 5
- Fulfills Requirements: Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning
- Pre-requistes: None
- Description: Fundamentals of computer science
essential for educated people living in the 21st C, taught with two concurrent
themes. Creativity Theme topics:
Computing as a creative activity, processing of data creates knowledge, abstraction,
levels of abstraction, managing complexity, , computational thinking, programming
(in the Processing language)
debugging. Principles Theme topics: Data and
information, algorithms, basic ideas behind technologies
including computers, networks, search engines, and multimedia. Social uses and
abuses of information, and the foundations of privacy.
- Final: Thursday, 21 March 2012, 8:30-10:20 AM.
Textbook
This is a new course; no one has written a textbook yet. We will use the
Getting Started book by Reas and Fry for the Processing Language; they invented
it. It's a really sweet little book, and inexpensive ($9.99 -$13.00 through online
book sellers). There are few things you'll buy this term that are a better value; this book is
WORTH its price. Otherwise, we will use readings that will be assigned incrementally.
We will also use Blown To Bits by Abelson, Leeden and Lewis in our discussion of privacy and other
social networking topics. This is also an excellent book
and if your budget is up to it, I encourage you to buy it. It is also online, which is perhaps
the best way to get the excerpts that we will be reading.
- Getting Started with Processing by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, O'Reilly 2010
- Blown To Bits: Your Life, Liberty and Happiness After The Digital Explosion
by Hal Abelson, Ken Leeden and Harry Lewis, 2010; find it at online booksellers.
Online Edition
- Readings: To Be Assigned.
Grading
CS Principles has many aspects and they all contribute to your success in the class, and
therefore, to your grade. The components of your grade are:
- Homework Two-day assignments that give practice with
various topics. Each assignment will take approximately 1-2 hours to complete; they
are almost all on-line.
- Project One 2.5-week project gives an opportunity for a more substantial
computing experience.
- Midterm The midterm exam is Friday February 15; a page of notes is allowed.
- Final The final is on Thursday March 21; a page of notes is allowed.
- Developmental Feedback Because CS Principles is a class under development,
you will be asked to give feedback about what you've learned in this class. The feedback gives you
a chance to say what you think about the class. And, it's worth points! Here's the run down:
- Pre, Post Survey, each: 20 pts
- After Image Recap, each: 10 pts
- Whatever else: TBA pts
- Reading, Writing, Discussing, Thinking In class and on the discussion board
"non scientific" matters will be treated, such as ethics, social behavior, privacy and other
topics about which people have opinions. Your thoughtful participation will be of value
to all. Each opportunity will be worth 5 pts, and contributing constructively is all that's required to earn
the points.
The grade weighting is as follows:
- Homwork and Projects: 55%
- Midterm: 10%
- Final: 25%
- Feedback & RWDT: 10%
The gradebook will be updated regularly; please check it regularly to be sure scores have
been recorded correctly.
Academic Conduct
The following paragraphs discussing academic integrity, copyright and privacy,
outline matters governing student conduct in CSE and the University of Washington.
They apply to all assignments and communications in this course.
Academic Integrity
The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others,
but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that
all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions
of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.
For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited.
The format is not that important as long as the source material can be located and the
citation verified, it's OK. What is important is that the material be cited. In any situation,
if you have a question, please feel free to ask. Such attention to ideas and
acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.
Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty.
Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments to the English
Department Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively.
Information on scheduling an appointment can be found
here.
Copyright
All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such
as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title
17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1)
your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course
environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your
instructors (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures). Within the
constraints of "fair use,"
you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in
support of your education here in the UW. Such fair use by you does not include
further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond
the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family.
If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of
these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask
the instructor for guidance.
Privacy
To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of
personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must
be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues.
As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any
member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their
families, life styles and their political and social affiliations. If you have any questions
regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in
the university community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask
the instructor for guidance.
Knowing violations of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may
result in University disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.
Accessiblity
To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled
Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from
DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations,
please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might
need in the class.
Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has
a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.
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