Commitment to Excellence in Everything We Do: Academics, Activities and Citizenship
Course Syllabus: Honors Visual Basic Programming
“'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are!
-Alice from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Course Content
The major goal of this course is to reinforce computing concepts to students who have previously taken an introduction to programming. These concepts include objects, properties, methods, functions, decision- making, loops, random number generation, Boolean logic, variables, parameters, arguments, and arrays will be introduced. Students can expect to develop these skills through a hands-on exercises and projects. Projects will include independent work as well as group work.
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Units
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Programming Practice
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Semester One
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Unit 1
Introduction to Programming And Visual Basic
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Computer Systems: Software and Hardware
Programs and Programming Languages
Controls and Programming
Modifying Properties of Controls
The Programming Process
Visual Studio and Visual Basic Express
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Load and run a computer application.
Learn a new way to think.
Learn how to arrange a sequence of instructions to carry out a task (solve a problem).
Learn the specifics of programming with Visual Basic language.
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Unit 2
Creating Applications
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Designing an Application
Programming an Application
Gathering Text Input
Variables and Data Types
Performing Calculations
Debugging
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Unit 3
Algorithms, Pseudocode and Program Control
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Algorithms, Pseudocode
If … Then Selection Statement
Assignment Operators
Focus on Program Design and Problem Solving: Building an Application
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Unit 4
Repetition Statements
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Do While…Loop
Do Until…Loop
For… Next Loops
Select Case Statements
Building the Interest Calculator Application
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Unit 5
Scope, Parameters, Arguments, Option Strict
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Scope
Parameters, Arguments
Pass-by-Reference vs. Pass-by-Value
Option Strict
Timers
Date and Time Variables
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Units
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Includes Standard Clusters*
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Semester Two
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Unit 6
Classes and Procedures
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Functions
Execution Control
Sub Procedures
Enum
Random Numbers and Random Motion
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Use logical reasoning.
Use random numbers for statistic modeling.
Using arrays to manipulate data.
Learn about object-oriented programming and to apply concepts to other programming languages such as Java and C++.
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Unit 7
Arrays and Gui Design
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Introducing Arrays
Declaring and Allocating Arrays
Sorting Arrays
Designing and Constructing a Game
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Unit 8
Building your own classes and Objects
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Unit 9
String Processing and Files Printing and Structures
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Fundamentals of Strings
Extracting Substrings from Strings
Replacing Substrings in Strings and other String methods
Files and Streams
Writing to a file
Extracting Data from a file
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Unit 10
Introducing Graphics and Printing
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GDI+ Introductions
Constructing the Checkwriter Application
Graphics Objects: Colors, Lines and Shapes
The Balloon Application
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Core Idea First Semester: Our focus first semester will be on
By the end of the first semester, in order to demonstrate mastery, students should be able to answer the following essential questions:
1.1 What Is a Computer?
1.2 Computer Organization2
1.3 Machine Languages, Assembly Languages and High-Level Languages
1.4 Visual Basic
1.5 Other High-Level Languages
1.6 Structured Programming3
1.7 Key Software Trend: Object Technology
1.8 The Internet and the World Wide Web
1.9 Introduction to Microsoft .NET
1.10 Test-Driving the Visual Basic AdvancedPainter Application
How do exponential functions model real-world phenomena?
How do logarithmic functions model real-world phenomena?
How can you use cross-sections of three-dimensional objects to create the different conic sections?
What are the different types of conic sections?
How do conic sections model real-world phenomena?
Core Idea Second Semester: Our focus second semester will be on using characteristics of trigonometric functions to sketch graphs of those functions, working with trigonometric identities, and expanding students’ understanding of matrices and vectors. Students will use these concepts to model and solve real-world problems.
By the end of the second semester, in order to demonstrate mastery, students should be able to answer the following essential questions:
How can we restrict the domain of trigonometric functions to make them invertible?
How can you use the periodic behavior of trigonometric functions to model real-world phenomena?
How can we use the trigonometric identities to help verify proofs and manipulate and simplify trigonometric expressions?
How can the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines be used to model and solve real-world problems?
How can the same curve be represented in Cartesian and in polar?
How do the arithmetic operations with numerals compare to the operations with matrices? With vectors?
How can you use matrices to model real-world phenomena?
How can you use vectors to model real-world phenomena?
Assessment Schedule: (Please note these are preliminary and tentative dates. They are subject to change, but should occur in the general area of the timeframe provided below.)
First Quarter Assessments:
Unit 1 Project/Test – end of September; Unit 2 Project/Test – mid-October
A Unit 3 project incorporating the curriculum will account for 25% of the student’s final grade (end of October).
Second Quarter Assessments:
Unit 4 Project/Test – mid-November; Mid-Unit 5 Project/Test – mid-December
A cumulative exam containing multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions accounting for 25% of the student’s grade (mid-January)
Third Quarter Assessments:
Unit 6 Project/Test – mid -March; Unit 7 Test –end of March
A project incorporating the curriculum will account for 25% of the student’s final grade (end of March).
Fourth Quarter Assessments:
Unit 8 Project/Test – mid-April; Unit 9 Project/Test – mid-May Unit 10 Projects – if time permits
A cumulative exam containing multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions accounting for 25% of the student’s grade (Seniors – end of May, underclassmen – June)
Texts*: Simply Visual Basic 2008, 3rd Edition
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