CSC120 J1 - Spring 2011

CSC120 J1 (44383) - Spring 2012

 

Professor: Darci L. Burdge
Phone: 572-7976
Office: C3064
Office Hours: Tuesday (10:00 – 11:15) and Thursday (1:00 - 2:15) or By Appointment
E-mail: Darci.Burdge@ncc.edu

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Class Meets:
Monday - 12:30 - 1:45 (B217)
Tuesday - 1:00 - 3:45 (B221)
Wednesday – 12:30 - 1:45 (B217)

Prerequisite:
At least a C in CSC 104 (previously CMP 104) or equivalent, or prior programming experience including HS programming courses, or MAT 111 or equivalent including HS pre-calculus, or permission of department. Students must have satisfied all MAT, ENG 001 and RDG 001 remediation requirements prior to starting the course. Students who have completed CMP 210 will not get credit for CSC 120.

Textbook:
Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design, 7th Edition by Lewis, J. & Loftus, W., Addison-Wesley, 2012
A custom version of the textbook containing chapters 1 – 7 is available at the campus bookstore.

Electronic Resources:
Students will use email and Blackboard (an online course management tool) throughout this course.  Students are expected to read their NCC email accounts (http://www.ncc.edu/studentemail) daily and to check Blackboard (http://blackboard.ncc.edu/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct) for notification of assignments and to submit their work for grading.

Computer Center Requirement:
As part of this course, you should avail yourselves of further study and/or educational assistance available in the Computer Learning Center: B225. These activities and use of the resources provided are deemed an integral part of the course, and will help you master necessary knowledge and skills. NOTE: In order to use the Learning Center you must present a valid NCC identification card.

Students with Disabilities:
If you have - or suspect you have – a physical, psychological, medical, learning disability, or other health impairment that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned coursework, I urge you to contact the staff at the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD), Bldg. U, 572-7241, TTY 572-7616. The counselors at CSD will review your concerns and determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation will be kept confidential. I encourage students with disabilities to discuss accommodations with me.

Withdrawal Policy:
I will grant a grade of "W" any time through March 26. You must decide by March 26 whether or not you wish to withdraw from this class. It is the student’s responsibility to file a signed, drop/add form with the registrar if you wish to withdraw from this class. I will not withdraw any student for excessive absences or failure to take the final exam. Consideration will be given to students who request a "W" after the withdrawal date.

Projects:
There will be approximately 6 programming projects. All projects are expected to be handed in on time. You will lose considerable points for late projects. You are required to submit a program that is syntax free and producing some output, even if the output is incorrect. I will not grade programs which contain syntax errors. On the day a project is due you must submit the appropriate file(s) prior to the specified time.

Exams:
There will be 2 exams given throughout the semester in addition to a final exam. Make-up exams will not be given. Consideration will be given to those students who contact me before the exam (via e-mail or phone) and provide a valid, documented reason for missing the exam.

Hands-On:
There will be approximately 12 Laboratory meetings. Students will work in pairs on the assignment distributed at each of these meetings and will be responsible for completing and submitting these assignments by the end of class. Due to the fact that you will be working in pairs, it is essential that you be present and on time for all laboratory meetings.

Attendance:
Attendance is a critical aspect of this course. As such, attendance will be taken every day at the beginning of class. Please note that every late arrival/early departure will count as half an absence. Since attendance is so critical to learning, students who attend class will be given special consideration at the end of the semester. Students who have no more than 3 absences will have their lowest laboratory assignment dropped and 5 points added to their project average. The new laboratory and project averages will be used in the calculation of their final grade. Students are responsible for all material missed due to absence and should contact me or another student prior to the next scheduled class meeting to determine what was covered and/or assigned.

Grading Policy:
Final grades will be determined by the following percentages:

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Outline:
The following is intended to provide you with an outline of how this course will progress. Dates of exams, project assignments, and project due dates may be adjusted to account for progress of the class as a whole.  The Laboratory component of this course should re-enforce material presented in the classroom.

Jan. 23

Introduction, course outline and policies, what is a program:  primitive data types, variables, assignment statements, mathematical operations, output

Jan. 24

Lab #1—Introduction

Jan. 25

Input, introduction to Strings: classes and objects, declaring reference variables and instantiating objects, pair programming discussion

Jan. 30

Calling methods in the String class, String group exercise - Project 1 Assigned

Jan. 31

Lab #2 – Parsing a URL

Feb. 1

Additional String methods and understanding a method header, reading documentation

Feb. 6

Labeling the parts of a program, using multiple classes - Project 1 Due

Feb. 7

Lab #3 – Exploring programmer defined classes

Feb. 8

Intro to programmer defined classes, variables (reference vs. primitive), constructors - Project 2 Assigned

Feb. 13

Writing instance methods, if statements

Feb. 14

Lab #4 – Writing the Card class

Feb. 15

Methods, nested if-else statements, and boolean operators - Project 2 Due

Feb. 27

Review for Exam 1              

Feb. 28

Exam 1

Feb. 29

Writing programmer defined classes revisited - Project 3 Assigned

Mar. 5

Writing methods that return a value, scope of variables, error types

Mar. 6

Lab #5 – Writing the Dice class

Mar. 7

Application vs. programmer defined classes, labeling a programmer defined class, intro to for loops

Mar. 12

Tracing code in a programmer defined class

Mar. 13

Lab #6 – Writing the PhoneBookEntry class -  Project 3 Due

Mar. 14

For loops and nested for loops

Mar. 19

More for loops, intro to while loops - Project 4 Assigned

Mar. 20

Lab #7 – Writing the PokerHand class

Mar. 21

Introduction to arrays of primitives

Mar. 26

Arrays of primitives, methods that process arrays of primitives

Mar. 27

Lab #8 – Writing the Student class

Mar. 28

Arrays of primitives continued - Project 4 Due

Apr. 9

Review for Exam 2

Apr. 10

Exam 2

Apr. 11

Arrays of primitives continued, the game of Yahtzee -  Project 5 Assigned

Apr. 16

Intro to arrays of objects, the Deck class

Apr. 17

Lab #9 – Writing the Hand class

Apr. 18

Writing methods that process arrays of objects

Apr. 23

Writing methods that process arrays of objects continued...

Apr. 24

Lab #10 – Writing the Course class

Apr. 25

More practice with arrays of objects - Project 5 Due

Apr. 30

Arrays of objects: inserting, searching - Project 6 Assigned

May 1

Lab #11 – The Course class continued...

May 2

Arrays of objects: inserting, searching, deleting

May 7

Arrays of objects: inserting, searching, deleting continued…

May 8

Lab #12 – Writing the BlackjackHand class

May 9

Inheritance - Project 6 Due

May 14

Review for Final Exam

May 15

Final Exam – Part 1

May 16

Final Exam – Part 2

Return to Spring 2012 Schedule