5.1 Teammate goals

Ryan dorrity

Ryan’s goal is to attain his B.S. in Computer Science and subsequently work as a software developer. However, his true passion is information security. While he did not specify why he did not want to first pursue a career in information security, it seems to be his ultimate goal. I speculate that he would feel more comfortable learning more about infosec before pursuing a career in this domain.

While Ryan’s educational goal mirrors my own, our motivations are different. I am pursuing my B.S. in Computer Science to be able to better mentor my high school students in software development and to prepare them for college and career.

Cody young

Cody recently was hired as a software test analyst. His goal in earning his B.S. in Computer Science is  to help him better understand the software development process in order to become a better debugger and test analyst. He plans on staying with his current career to broaden his expertise.

Cody and I are similar in that we are enrolled in this degree program to become stronger at the careers we already have.

Nathan warren-acord

Nathan’s goals include getting his B.S. in Computer Science and continuing his studies to further hone his programming skills. His ultimate dream is to work in a small video game development studio. I’ll have to admit that this sounds enticing to me as well; however, I will likely work on games on the side while continuing my teaching career.

5.2 Capstone ideas

AP CSA Educational Web Application

Inspired by the BrainiMac project from the CS Online Fall 2017 Capstone Festival, I would be interested in developing a free web application to help AP Computer Science A students master the object oriented programming concepts needed to pass their AP exam. Currently, there is a dearth of teachers qualified to teach this course, so providing this service can assist students to self-study and still take the AP exam even if their school does not offer the course.

coding game

I have always been interested in developing a game. I am a fan of the relatively recent titles such as Double Fine’s Hack ‘n’ Slash and Zachtronics’ Shenzhen IO. In Hack ‘n’ Slash, the player alters Lua code to defeat enemies and progress through the game. Shenzhen IO is another programming game that teaches the player how to program microprocessors in an assembly language. As an AP CSA educator, I am always looking for fun ways for my students to practice Java programming. Therefore, another idea I would love to investigate is to develop a programming game that helps students learn Java. Potential names include Polymorphic or Strange OOP.

school mobile app

A more practical idea is to develop an application for my school site, Sweetwater High. The WordPress-powered template of our school website is currently locked by the district and finding and accessing information on the website can sometimes be a challenge. I have been challenged, as the content manager, in making improvements to our website without having direct access to modifying the template and layout. Designing and implementing a user-friendly mobile application for all stakeholders–students, parents, and staff–would solve this problem. Features could include the school calendar, directory, student planner, and counseling portal.

5.3 Learning log

As a former rhetoric teacher, I enjoyed the review of loaded words and their affect on the pathos of an argument. I also enjoyed seeing the reading on logical fallacies. My favorite way of learning and teaching logical fallacies is through the short story by Max Shulman, “Love Is a Fallacy”.

I enjoyed having to create a website in anticipation of all of the courses that we will have taken by the end of our program. Rereading the titles and descriptions of the courses we will take made me very excited for all of the projects we will do and concepts that we will learn and practice.