Syllabus

Mr. Zendt - Lab Room C133
Email: jzendt@alvinisd.net
Tutoring: Wednesday 3:00pm – 4:00 & Friday 3:00pm – 4:00 or by appointment.

Welcome!
To be successful in my (and any) class, students must be able to:
• Complete all work (even if not collected for a grade).
• Study outside of class.
• Ask for help when stuck.
• Bring an open mind and try new things.
• Work independently and in groups.
• Participate in all Classroom Activities

Course Materials
Each student is required to bring:
• Flash Drive with one gigabyte (1 GB) free.  USB 2.0 or 3.0 (3.0 is preferred).
• Pencils or Mechanical Pencils for Notes and Written Assignments.
• 3 Ring Binder: About 1" thick, or space in a larger binder
• Paper: Used for notes in the binder.
• 5-Tab Binder Dividers: To keep the binder organized, see below.
• 3 Different Color Writing Utensils: pens, markers, highlighters, or pencils, etc.

The Binder
You will receive quite a few handouts of programming references and take a reasonable amount of notes. Organization is a major key to success in this class. So here's how I recommend setting up your class binder:
• Reference: Function Reference Cards
• Notes: Notes taken in class
• Worksheets: Various homework and worksheets
• Tests: Tests and Quizzes
• AP: FRQs and other AP-related review material

Curriculum:
• AP Syllabus
• Topics by Unit

Software used in class (in order of use):
• Jeroo: http://home.cc.gatech.edu/dorn/38
• BlueJ: http://www.bluej.org/index.html
• JCreator: http://www.jcreator.com/index.htm
• Greenfoot: www.greenfoot.org
• Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/

Assignments
All programming assignments will be turned in via assignment upload on Google Classroom.

Some homework assignments (programming labs) will REQUIRE the use of a computer at home.  All software used in this class is compatible with both PC and MAC, is completely free to use, and is clean of any malware.  Only download from the links that I have provided.

Remember students have access to the Internet and a printer through the Manvel High School library.

Grades
It will be very difficult to get an A in this class without being able to pass (get a 3) the AP exam. Please refer to the Math Department AP Contract for information about Late Work and Grading.  Grading is based on the District AP Level 60% Major / 40% Daily grading weights.

Homework/Classwork (10%): Worksheets and Minor Programming Assignments (labs without rubrics and CodingBat assignments) fall into this category.

Quizzes (10%): We will have one or two quizzes per unit.  These could be standard content quizzes, or a single graded AP Free Response Question.  Quizzes are meant to provide graded feedback to students about where they stand in a unit and not to punish their grade, thus they do not have a significant weight in grading.

Labs (20%): There are usually one to two major Labs per unit.  These are Labs that might span from 2-4 days of class and have a scoring rubric.

Tests (60%): This category includes major tests structured like AP exams, and may contain multiple choice questions and free response questions. This category also includes larger programming projects that span multiple weeks.

A note about assistance from peers: you may ask others for help on an assignment, but copying of another student's program (or small sections of) is NOT allowed and will be considered cheating/plagiarism. Changing variable names does not count as original work. Ask HOW they solved the problem, not WHAT is the solution. If you are helped by another student, please include them as a "with help from" in your program header!

AP Exam
The Exam will be given on Tuesday, May 3, 2017 at 8:00 am. (First week of AP Testing)
You must arrive 30 minutes early. The exam lasts 3 hours and Consists of two parts: 1 hr. 15 min. for 40 multiple choice questions and 1 hr. 45 min. for four free response.

The test is entirely pencil and paper. In other words, no computers are available. AP tests are graded on a scale of 1 to 5 with 3 considered passing. The test is difficult but is doable if you have learned how to program.

Studying for the AP Exam
Although we will prepare in class, I have found that students who studied outside of class have significantly out-preformed those who did not. There so much content in AP Computer Science that some school have broken the class into two years; however our program is only one year. That means I highly recommend that students who want to get a 4 or 5 to purchase a study guide and practice outside of class. Students will learn everything they need in class, but due to time constraints we don't get the amount of practice I would like everybody to have.
I recommend the Barron's AP Computer Science A book, however, do not purchase it until January when the new edition comes out (7th Edition)--there are significant changes to the AP test. I will host after school and Saturday AP cram sessions in April to help the dedicated few get ready!

Google Classroom
I will use Google Classroom as the primary means of assignment submission and grading. Please create an account (if you haven't already) and join my class. I will check Google Classroom during most evenings, so if you ever have any trouble with an assignment, post a question and myself or another student will try to answer. I will stop checking around 8pm-9pm, so don't post at midnight expecting an answer!