Mr. Higgins’ Blog

Here are the thoughts in my head on this holiday break regarding AP Computer Science:

• It is about the problem. Not the solution.
• It is about the design. Not the implementation.
• It about the approach.  Not the fail-safe version.
• It is about the enthusiasm.  Not the grade in the course.
• It is about a flag.  Not a clever conditional.
• It is about how much fun the students have in the moment.  It is not about their teacher being an amateur programmer. (If that is how I am defined)

What is my point?

The point is that I have now been teaching AP Computer Science A for a total of 3 1/2 years and I can tell within about five weeks whether a student will be successful on the AP examination just by their general problem solving skills, design capabilities, approach to a problem, enthusiasm, ability to have fun, and use of flags. 

I am not obsessed with flags; however, not everyone out there could create a finite state machine.  I have always approached programming from that standpoint.

I teach AP Computer from an old school approach.  I stand at the marker board nearly every time we are designing a program.  It is a fun thought exercise for me to develop a scheme (along with the students) with nothing in front of me.  That type of abstract thinking really keeps me ticking in this type of class.  Naturally, the pace is then the burden of the students based on how fast they type and setup their programming statements.

Tug of War with the following factors:

1. Time is of the essence – There are only X weeks to get through a boat load of material for teacher like me, that have students in their FIRST programming class.
2. Topics, Topics, Topics – No matter how long I have, there is a list of topics and concepts that must be accomplished.  I take that as a challenge.
3. CS1, NOT AP ONLY – I love to cover topics that are not on the AP Exam; however, I obviously have the AP topics throughout the mainstream discussion.

I feel that I set a pace during the first month that leaves me enough time to get through all AP topics + a great deal of CS1/CS2 type topics.

As previously mentioned in a blog post, I teach the entire class from a standpoint of large scale programs which act as the backbone to the entire course.  Any of my past students knows about the TicTacToe game, Battleship game, Deal or No Deal game, Audioactive Sequence, Gorilla program, Pig game, Card & Deck simulation,

For the record: I am still not a fan of the Case Study; however, I DO UNDERSTAND the value of evaluating a large scale program from someone else…

Have a Great Thanksgiving!!!

Anyone out there that reads this blog have Google Wave?  I am still waiting for a Google Wave Light Bulb to go off in my head.

I am definitely not the first edublogger to make a post regarding Arthur Benjamin’s lecture seen on TED.  He argues that statistics should be the peek of the high school mathematics curriculum rather than Calculus.

I posted a link to this video on the AP Calculus Listserv.  Here are a variety of responses I received (These are direct quotes):

There is a kind of depth vs breadth thing going on when you compare Stats and Calculus.  Stats has it’s hand in so many subjects which is why it makes such a good senior level class:  Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Biology, Chemistry, Medicine, Current Events and therefore Journalism and so on. 

I agree that Statistics has it’s hand in the cookie jar; however, we often discuss mathematics from a standpoint of extending a student’s logical process, problem solving skills, and total mental skill set.  Is Calculus too deep for some?  OF COURSE, but AT THIS POINT, I would not want to steer students from a Calculus track.

The math that has calculus at the top: exponentials, trig, polynomial functions, multivariable relationships, is more broadly applicable to all things numbery than the math that has statistics at the top, Alg1.5.

I have never taught statistics; however, I could understand why it is thought of as Algebra 1.5.  It does seem odd that a student has a potential to choose a track such as Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, and then Statistics.

I have never yet seen a group of high school juniors who’ve been taught more than a very small amount of probability or statistics.  Take a look at a typical textbook series, and you’ll find a tremendous volume of algebra and geometry, hundreds of pages of conic sections, and maybe a dozen pages of light treatment of statistics. 

TOTAL AGREEMENT HERE.  I didn’t learn any statistics besides the basics concepts and I was always in honors mathematics courses.  When Ohio officially has the four years of mathematics across the board, it will be interesting to see where statistics comes into this discussion.

I will continue with my own inner monologue of thoughts regarding this issue; however, I am interesting in what some of you think about this issue?

Honors Algebra II & Pre-Calculus

• I want to improve my delivery of material, especially using the SMART Notebook software.  Basically, all of my notes are prepared using this great piece of software.  Having three complete years of Algebra II and two complete years of Pre-Calculus under my belt, I finally have my notes semi-finalized.  Warning: Anyone that is an effective teacher has to adapt from year to year; therefore, I do realize that my lecture notes are a living document.  This is something that really gets me going; especially when a parent tells me that I do the same thing each year.
• I need to walk around the room and make better use of the Tablet PC / Wireless Projector setup in my classroom.  It seems I have a lot more fun when I can walk around the room and pick on the students.  Some of them need me as motivation!
• I noticed in my student surveys that the students felt I did not review enough.  This will not change; however, I may created review sheets that are printed out for the students to see a list of topics OR have been posted on the moodle / blog.
• I am also very eager to continue to improve and tweak our use of the classroom blog.  I feel that the students have done a great job of presenting material using the Scribe List process.  It seems there will be less time this year to develop some new types of assignments on the blog.

AP Calculus AB

• This is a new prep; however, it is the one I have been looking forward to the most.  It is going to be my biggest challenge yet.  There is a lot of pressure to teach to the test.  Having experienced the AP curriculum, I understand that effectively teaching of all of the proper topics seems to do well.  Sure, there will be review; however, I am teaching the topics I would teach without the AP exam.  We will see how this calculus gig works out in a year.
• These students are going to continue with the scribe process that some of them have been exposed to for two years already.  I am going to have to come up with more Student Focus ideas and be creative post-AP exam.
• I could not ask for a better group of students.  They have really made their parents proud.  Ironically, two years ago I started with basically all of them in a room of 34 students until the administration decided it was too large.
• I have a few chapters worth of notes completed for this up and coming school year.  I realized that after three chapters, I was getting to a point where too many assumptions were being made about how the students would attain material.  I will bite the bullet during this year.
• I look at this class in many different ways:
  • It is for the students that simply love math!
  • It is for the students that want me to save them money in college (bypassing credits)
  • It is for the students that are going into a technical majoring requiring calculus
  • It is for the students that understand my delivery and have realized that my challenging style is teaching them several life lessons AND making them mentally stronger for later in life. (Same way many readers go about teaching)
  • It is for the students that want to “complete the path” of honors math
  • No matter the reason, it is going to be challenging for both teacher and student!
• The giant elephant in the room: This is my first EVER math course that is in a 1-1 Tablet PC environment.  How groovy is that?

AP Computer Science

• Like mentioned above, I have an absolutely great group of students this year.  I feel I have finally figured out how to effectively hammer on the students for four months.
• “Hammer on them for four months”????

  My philosophy in this class is to start from day one and discuss programming code/concepts/examples from bell to bell everyday for the first four months.  I let the students make the decisions regarding programming parameters (project requirements) and this way they learn to appreciate the problem they are presented.  If the only life lesson they learn all year is to APPRECIATE THE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS, I have succeeded.

• My success with students of this ability level is very high thus far.  I have been able to narrow myself down to three official weeks of review for the AP exam.  I am still looking for more innovative ways to review.  Last year we used collaboration and all of the students typed their answered to multiple choice practice questions and we took a “class score” using the most frequent answer vs the actual answer.  We made sure to review those questions specifically.  It turns out to be three of the longest weeks of the year for me during the review.

Google Docs

• I am looking to develop a set of assignments which involve Google Docs on my installation of Google Apps
• So far I only have one idea that I know I am going to follow through with:
• AP Computer Science History of Computing Assignment.  Instead of using PowerPoint to create their presentations, I want to give Google Presentation a try so the students can easily embed the presentation on the web.

Moodle

• Both AP Computer Science and AP Calculus AB have moodle courses where I will expect the students to submit work on a regular basis.
• In AP Computer Science, it is great for submitting programming assignments because it is integral that I receive the actual file the student created.
• In AP Calculus AB, I have not determined if we are going to actually turn in homework through the moodle.  I know I am going to require the students to complete some work on the moodle; however, I am waiting until the idea pops into my head.

I had the privilege to be part of a meeting with a few Fujitsu representatives regarding our one-to-one tablet project at the school.  Anyone that reads this blog knows how excited the the tablet PC and Web 2.0 topics makes me; therefore, I felt like a kid in a candy store.  We are expanding the project this next year to include essentially all senior level students and some junior level students in a couple Honors/AP courses.  My AP Computer Science and AP Calculus AB class will both be one-to-one.   I have still not been able to use the full power of the one-to-one tablet solution in any of the math courses.  My AP Calculus AB class this year will be my first chance.  I am SOOOO EXCITED.

After the meeting, I started thinking about all of the Web 2.0 topics and projects that I have used in my three years of teaching. 

Here is the list I came up with of Web 2.0 interaction with the classroom:

• Advanced Web Development PowerPoint, Wiki, & Podcast Project – Kept Private
• Lefty Grove Baseball League Website (leftygrovebaseball.org)
• Scribe Hall of Fame
• Student Math Commercials/Videos for Honors Algebra II and Pre-Calculus on YouTube
• Mr. Higgins’ Tie Project (Students Seemed to Really Like this a lot)
• Tech Boot Camp 2009
• 2007 – 2008 Honors Algebra II Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 AP Computer Science Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Algebra I Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Honors Algebra II Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Pre-Calculus Class Blog
• I’m sure there are a few more that I can’t remember…or find a link in my collection.

For me, the mathematics videos were most rewarding and the students really enjoyed them a great deal.  However, I am looking forward to interacting with each student holding a tablet PC.  Moodle is going to be a HUGE piece of this puzzle.

Great One-to-One Article from Twitter:

Link: http://beta.aalf.org/articles/view.php?ArticleID=79

Actual Results for AP Computer

Course Size: 9 Students Surveyed

Part 3 of the Course Evaluation

1. Course difficulty, compared to other high school courses:

2. How would you rate the ease of use of the eBook?

3. Hours per week required outside of class:

4. Expected score on the AP exam:

Part 4: Please provide specific feedback.

1. What was your best learning experience in this course?

• Making all of the programs
• The course as a whole
• I enjoyed learning the java language and being able to logically deal with problems
• Programming Battleship…it was interesting, fun, and taught me a lot as I had to solve a lot of problems (2)
• Tic-Tac-Toe program
• Learning about the coding world behind the programs I use everyday
• Programming the Lego Mindstorms
• GridWorld Case Study

2. What was your worst learning experience in this course?

• Inheritance / Polymorphism was difficult (2)
• The few days that I was lost"
• None
• Audioactive Sequence
• Mathematics on the computer
• Having use the new tablets (Fujitsu)
• Studying for the AP Test
• Battleship program

3. What changes would you suggest to improve the way this course is taught?

• More Free Response AP Questions (2)
• None (5)
• More Board Work or Group Projects
• Don’t Know

4. What advice do you have for students taking this course next year?

• “Work hard, do all the programs and don’t worry much about the AP Test”
• “Try to come up with your own solutions for in class projects”
• “Pay attention!”
• “The course was rather challenging, so prepared to work hard.  Don’t worry if your grade is not a perfect A+, for you will learn a lot”
• “You get out what you put in.  It’s not about code, it’s about using spatial reasoning to understand how objects interact”
• “Learn the concepts early”
• “Program neatly and easy for others to understand”
• “Understand Arrays!”
• “Do your best and don’t change things that work”

My interpretation of AP Computer

The students seemed to like the methods and pace that I kept up until the AP examination.  I was expecting a couple of comments pertaining to how fast I go at the beginning of the course.  I was quite surprised about the mention of more AP Test Free Response questions because I felt I used too many this year; however, they obviously felt like they were still a little weak in that area compared to the multiple choice.  I hammered them on the multiple choice type questions in hopes that the AP Test would feel “easier”. 

Inheritance and Polymorphism are difficult to figure out in your head until you receive a few good examples.  I choose to teach the students about the code FIRST, and then get into Objects, Classes, and their relationships later.  Perhaps I need to introduce Objects and Classes a little earlier.  I am still struggling internally when it comes to the Blue Pelican Java book; however, my students like the book.  There were many times that I wanted a reference book and there were many times where I wanted a text-based book.  Overall, I have to be happy with the student responses.  I hope the AP scores are a little higher than they predicted!

As my third year of teaching comes to an end (and I recover from Grey’s Anatomy involving George and Izzy), I realize that I have learned so much about myself over these last three years while educating the future of our society.  I have not had any time to make a blog post because all of my energy and time has been funneled through spring sports season and my own end of the year anal retention behaviors.

Future Math Classes Happenings

I have been informed I will be teaching AP Calculus AB beginning with the 2009 – 2010 school year.  I am very excited at the prospects of my Web 2.0 style in AP Calculus and look forward to stabilizing the math department at the top.  This course will be a 1-1 tablet class where each student will have a tablet pc.  I am already working on our Moodle installation for next year as I attempt to organize some AP examination material and provide the students with various links.  It is going to be a fun and challenging year.  I really would have never imagined that my fourth year schedule would give me such a great opportunity to teach the best and brightest students we have to offer in two disciplines.

My courses for next year are as follows:

• Honors Algebra II – 2 Classes
• Pre-Calculus – 2 Classes
• AP Computer Science – 1 Class
• AP Calculus AB – 1 Class

AP Computer Science Happenings

There are numerous post-AP examination activities in all of the AP courses; however, I found a great match this year in my AP Computer Science A course.  We are “playing” with Lego Mindstorms and have flashed the NXT module to include the possiblity of Java.  We are using a Lejos, which has a Java backbone and will allow the students to program the motors and sensors using our native programming language.  Thus far, they have made the following robots before beginning a full exploration of the Lejos Java syntax.

All images and instructions provided via NxtPrograms.com

Top Spinner & Spin Art

Guitar

Car with Game Controller

Claw Car with Game Controller

I can’t wait to see what my students come up with for their java programs.  I am making it their Final Exam Project!!!

On Friday, groups of teachers, administrators, and other interested parties were invited to attend a day long teacher workshop at NASA Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, OH.  For those who are not aware, Plum Brook is a testing facility for NASA parts and is famous for having the world’s largest vacuum chamber.  Here is my amateur video showing this giant vacuum chamber can be seen here:

Here is a more professional shot: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1281.html

Cool Fact: The door to seal off this chamber weights 5 million pounds.

We spent a couple of hours taking a tour of the facility and another couple of hours discussing how we can impact education in the area with other educational folk and engineers.  Here are some of the conclusions we reached to get students involved.

1. We need to have some sort of local competition where the students are given a challenge “handed down to them by NASA” to get them involved in creation, teamwork, analysis, and all of the other concepts involved in engineering.
2. There needs to be some day long or week long camps during the summer.  Many of the camps offered at other facilities within hours are longer terms like eight or ten weeks long.
3. More teacher specialty days where Plum Brook Station employees show off some experiments and perhaps explain the mathematics, science, and technology into a little further depth to help teachers bring some information to the classroom.  As a mathematics and computer science teacher, I would love to see some equations and programming code.  If students were able to analyze data, wouldn’t that be awesome?
4. Utilize the many other endeavors of this facility, especially the ecological projects as potential projects or specialty student days.

Many people who live in the area have no idea of how large this facility really is…

As a teacher, expectations for group projects are difficult to define when it is the first time the project is being attempted.  Using the work of Darren Kuropatwa as a guide, my classes were able to create humorous, educational, and revolutionary videos which are now posted on YouTube under my playlists.  I am very proud of the students work ethic and they really strived to make a final product that was understandable.  While not every group followed all of the guidelines I set, they still created entertaining videos.

Project Guidelines: http://apps.mrhiggins.net/student-video-focus

Project Discussion on my blog: http://www.mrhiggins.net/blog/2009/01/19/updates-for-high-school-math-and-web-20/

Not Everyone Watching Will Get It

One problem with some of the projects is that their are inside jokes that deal with my quirks or other students quirks.  Is this really a problem?  Not in my book.  However, a parent watching at home or anyone on the net may not understand some of the inside information.  The picture at the top of this blog is a caricature of me.  These are the parts of the videos that really make this project special.

Final Grading Thoughts

The project was graded with two categories in mind, the video product and the group interaction.

Final Video Product – A grade out of 70 points based on the initial expectations and guidelines posted on my school website

Group Interaction – I had each of the group members evaluate the others on a scale of 30 points which was split into three small categories: Video Footage Participation out of 10, Video Creation Participation out of 10, and Overall out of 10.

This created a grade out of 100 total points.  In the future, I will continue to use this type of grading scale; however, I will have to make some tweaks.

Creating Memories

When learning to become a teacher, they talk about impactful moments.  This was the impactful moment for many of the students.  Some of them will never forget the project.

Viewing “Party”

We took an entire class period to watch all 19 videos created by Period 1 Pre-Calculus, Period 4 Honors Algebra II, and Period 7 Pre-Calculus.  It was a lot of fun.  By the way, I call it a Viewing “Party” because it was all business.  We did not turn it into a food gathering event.

Days taken out of class time

In the future, I will take fewer days out of our class time because it is important to remain on task the entire school year.  Here is the breakdown this year.

Introduction of the Project – 1/2 Period (I fit this in conveniently)

Introduction to Movie Maker – 2 Periods (With support from the technology coordinator)

Continue working and finalizing the project in Movie Maker – 2 Periods  (This worked perfect because I was at the 2009 Ohio eTech Conference anyhow)

Viewing “Party” – 1 Period  (This was a lot of fun and many of the students were PUMPED)

Where do we go now?

Only time will tell as we continue down the path of learning and molding minds.