AP Computer Science: Tentative Schedule Fall 2005

AP Java CS Syllabus - Fall 2005 

Textbooks for the course:

• DE - David Eck's free online book (html files)
• DE - David Eck's free online book (pdf file)
• WJ - William Jone's free online book (html & pdf files)
• FTCH - Advanced Placement Computer Science Study Guide: Java Concepts,
  4^th Edition, Frances Trees and Cay Horstmann, John Wiley & Sons,
  Inc., 2006.  ISBN 0-471-71861-0 (Available in the bookstore.)

All three have different excellent features, which we will combine. You will receive a CD containing the two online books.  Note that I have also put links in each book to JBuilder Java programs which you can run on your computer as you read through each one, after you have installed Java, JBuilder, and the contents of the CD on your computer.  

After an introduction to the basics of Java programming and how to use JBuilder, we will start programming and your homework will contain lots of little programs to write.  In addition, computer science comes with its own jargon so you will have to learn this too. We will have daily homework, and quizzes every other week on Wednesday. Dates for the quizzes are posted below and on the Upper School Test Calendar.

 
Assignment 1.  

• Read DE Chapter 1 carefully. It contains valuable background material.
• Read DE Chapter 2 and run all the programs: both the applets on the webpage,
  and also the applications, using JBuilder on your computer (click on the link).
  Try to understand how the programs work – ask questions.
• Listed at the bottom of the index page for each chapter is a link to an online self-quiz
  with answers. Make sure you take the self-quizzes for both Ch 1 & Ch 2, and that you
  know this material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to
  know for the AP CS exam.
• Do the programming exercises at the end of Chapter 2. Note that each one has a link to
  a JBuilder project already set up for you to use, and a link to a JBuilder project for the
  answer. For these exercises you should just copy and paste the author's solution into
  the JBuilder project file and get the application working properly.
• Quiz 1 is Wednesday, September 7, 2005.
  
  

Assignment 2.  

• Read DE Chapter 3 and run all the programs: both the applets on the webpage and,
  also the applications and applets, using JBuilder on your computer (click on the link).
  Try to understand how the programs work – ask questions.
• Listed at the bottom of the index page for each chapter is a link to an online self-quiz
  with answers. Make sure you take the self-quiz for Ch 3, and that you know this
  material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to know for
  the AP CS exam.
• Do the programming exercises at the end of Chapter 3. Note that each one has a link to
  a JBuilder project already set up for you to use, and a link to a JBuilder project for the
  answer. For these exercises you should just copy and paste the author's solution into
  the JBuilder project file and get the application or applet working properly. This time,
  after you get each one working, experiment by trying to change each program a bit both
  just to play with the concepts and to make sure you understand how each one works.
  
• Quiz 2 is Wednesday, September 21, 2005.
  
  

Assignment 3.  

• Note that with this assignment we will now switch to the William Jones book. Note that
  all the chapters in this book are Adobe pdf files, so there are no links to programs in the
  chapters themselves. The links to the JBuilder projects for the programs in the book and
  the exercises are both located on a separate webpage (see below).
• Read WJ Chapter 0 pp. ix-xi, which is a preface for the student.
• Read WJ Chapter 1 and run all the programs which are linked here WJ Ch 1 JBuilder links.
  As always, try to understand how the programs work – ask questions.
• Listed at the end of each chapter is a chapter review. Make sure that you know this
  material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to know for
  the AP CS exam.
• We will do most of the programming exercises interspersed throughout Chapter 1.
  Each required exercise has a link to a JBuilder project already set up for you to use,
  and linked here WJ Ch 1 JBuilder links. Note that we will now begin a part of the
  course in which you will write many small programs based on the examples in the
  book. To help with this process, some solutions are listed at the end of this chapter.
  
• Quiz 3 is Wednesday, October 5, 2005.
  
  

• Read WJ Chapter 2 and run all the programs which are linked here WJ Ch 2 JBuilder links.
  As always, try to understand how the programs work – ask questions.
• Listed at the end of each chapter is a chapter review. Make sure that you know this
  material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to know for
  the AP CS exam.
• We will do most of the programming exercises interspersed throughout Chapter 2.
  Each required exercise has a link to a JBuilder project already set up for you to use,
  and linked here WJ Ch 2 JBuilder links. Also, in this chapter you will write many small
  programs based on the examples in the book. To help with this process, some solutions
  are listed at the end of this chapter.
• Quiz 4 is Wednesday, October 19, 2005.
  
  

• Read WJ Chapter 3 and run all the programs which are linked here WJ Ch 3 JBuilder links.
  As always, try to understand how the programs work – ask questions. Note that in chapter
  we will focus primarily on programs that are not in the book, but are closely related to those
  in the book.
• Listed at the end of each chapter is a chapter review. Make sure that you know this
  material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to know for
  the AP CS exam.
• We will do only five programming exercises, however they will be a little more challenging
  than usual. Each required exercise has a link to a JBuilder project already set up for you to
  use, and linked here WJ Ch 3 JBuilder links.
• Quiz 5 is Wednesday, November 2, 2005.
  
  

Assignment 6.

• Read WJ Chapter 4 and run all the programs which are linked here WJ Ch 4 JBuilder links.
  As always, try to understand how the programs work – ask questions.
• Listed at the end of each chapter is a chapter review. Make sure that you know this
  material well. It will eventually build up to important material you need to know for
  the AP CS exam.
• We will do several of the programming exercises interspersed throughout Chapter 4.
  Each required exercise has a link to a JBuilder project already set up for you to use,
  and linked here WJ Ch 4 JBuilder links.
• Quiz 6 is Wednesday, November 16, 2005.