Course Aims

When this course is over, what are you going to be able to understand and do? Aims provide a bulleted list of core ideas and skills. It would be great idea if you became curious about the aims on this list.

The goal of computer club is to have fun and be challenged. Please think of this as a a learning opportunity. If you are not interested in learning, please go somewhere else. 

Assessment

There is no assessment in this course. 


Topics

Topics are big ideas, essential questions, and important skills in our course. All topics are assessed, formatively and summatively. Clicking the links below will bring you to a page which details the topic, and offers resources to help you understand them. Many courses share the same topics, but especially in the IB courses, the rigor and depth of the topics are more pronounced.

  1. Course orientation
  2. Web science
  3. Programming
  4. Development
  5. Design: Evaluation
  6. Design: Creating the Solution
  7. Design: Developing Ideas
  8. Design: Understanding a Problem

Teacher: Bill MacKenty, M.Ed.
Teacher email: bmackenty@aswarsaw.org

American School of Warsaw
Bielawa. 202 Warszawska Ul.
05-520 Konstancin-Jeziorna
POLAND
https://www.aswarsaw.org
https://www.mackenty.org

Required materials include a fully charged school-issued computer with all software updated as directed in our getting started guide.

This is a club. we don't really have policies.

You are responsible for understanding and following these guidelines. At the end of the day, just cite your code. 

From the Student Handbook:

Academic integrity is an expected trait in all students of ASW and is afforded the utmost value by all members of the faculty. The academic reputation of our students and the school in the wider community depend on it. Academic integrity expectations extend to all assessed and non-assessed school work and to all documentation produced for university and college applications. It is the expectation at ASW that all work and documentation submitted by students is entirely their own.

To ensure that high school students understand what constitutes academic honesty, teachers explicitly address the issue with all students at the start of each academic course.

Academic integrity means:

  1. Citing appropriately those whose work is used in the preparation of school work completing school work without the input of others whose knowledge of the task might advantage the student unfairly
  2. submitting work for assessment that is representative of the student's own learning and not that of others
  3. individually or collectively maintaining a level of confidentiality and personal ownership of one's own work, both assessed and non-assessed

Conversely, academic dishonesty means:

  1. Presenting the work, ideas, words, images, data or arguments of others as one's own without citation (plagiarism)
  2. copying or sharing work with others (unless specifically allowed) in any form (e.g. digitally sharing, downloading, in person) in a way that misrepresents a student's ability or is intended to mislead the intended audience
  3. presenting work as one's own which has been completed with the assistance of others (such as parents, other students or tutors) in a way that misrepresents a student's ability
  4. making up or altering references, quotations, statistics, etc. (fabrication or falsification)

When a faculty member determines that there has been a breach of academic integrity, the faculty member is required to inform the Principal of the incident.

  1. Do not disrupt our learning environment
  2. Work hard
  3. Be curious
  4. Be kind

 

None! 

Here is a guide how you can communicate with me. I am available most of the time. You should be aware of advantages and disadvantages for each method of communication:

Speak to me in person

  • Advantages: You can gauge my reaction to an initial idea. This method is good for quick, yes/no questions. I'll tell you if your question isn't quick to answer.
  • Disadvantages: Most problems are complex. It takes time to understand them and solve them.

Send me an email In-depth questions, with evidence that you have followed our guide to asking good questions will get replies.

  • Advantages: Messages are private.
  • Disadvantages: I don't respond to emails very quickly, and if your question is complex, it will take me more time to answer it. Also, if there is a lot of back-and-forth between us about your question, emails might make it hard to follow.

Ask a question in our ask-for-help system

  • Advantage: Other people can learn from your question. You can see where you are in a queue of students. 
  • Disadvantage: Answers to your questions might take a bit longer, especially if they are complex.

Ask a question on google classroom

  • Don't try to communicate with me on google classroom. It won't work
Week Starting Topic