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Session Calendar and session guides

CIT115: Introduction to Information Systems

Date Topic Notes/Status Date Topic Notes/Status
WED 5 SEP Course overview In what ways is a computer a tool? How can it be used not as a tool?
MON 10 SEP System diagramming Diagramming a car subsystem WED 12 SEP Computer component stations Power supplies, CPU & RAM, Basic Input Output System (BIOS), and permanent storage. Use session guide for Wed 5 Sep.
MON 17 SEP Operating systems Trying your hand at old-school computing to visualize file trees WED 19 SEP Flex day Content TBD
MON 24 SEP Computer Hardware Begin computer build WED 26 SEP Computer hardware Finish computer build
MON 1 OCT System diagnostics Learn about system resources with this exploration guide (editable file OR a PDF) WED 3 OCT Operating system essentials Drawing your own trees
File Trees Module
MON 8 OCT File trees 1 Building your own digital file tree
File Trees Module		 WED 10 OCT File Trees 2 File tree manipulation round robin
File Trees Module
MON 15 OCT File Trees 3 Tricky trees: Tree-based detective work
File Trees Module		 WED 17 OCT World wide web 1 World wide web essentials
MON 22 OCT WWW 2 Starting professional profile site WED 24 OCT WWW 3 The web technology stack: HTML, CSS, JS, and Databases
MON 29 OCT Security 1 Web-based security investigation WED 31 OCT Musical powerpoints The one and only slide deck day
MON 5 NOV Spreadsheets 1 Create a budget! WED 7 NOV Spreadsheets 2 Bid like a pro
MON 12 NOV Spreadsheetify your life eric @ APHA conference; no in-class meeting; online session.
Module: Spreadsheetify your life 		WED 14 NOV Observational data Stealthy field research
MON 19 NOV NO CLASS TURKEY DAY WED 21 NOV NO CLASS TURKEY DAY
MON 26 NOV Databases 1 Tables everywhere WED 28 WED Databases 2 Linking tables
>MON 3 DEC Databases 3 Designing your own simple database WED 5 DEC Databases 4 Sharing and populating our databases
MON 10 DEC Project work-time Last session WED 12 DEC Final period
normal class time		 Bring a fully-baked final project, please!

Session guides

Guiding questions, objectives, lesson activities, and out-of-class assignment listings are available for each class session. Click "toggle full session guide" to view all the session's sections.

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

topic

live_helpGuiding questions

  • What kinds of problems are computers good and not-so-good at solving?
  • How do computers store and manipulate data?

check_circleLearning Objectives

  • Provide and defend an example of a problem that computers are optimal for solving.
  • Explain how computers convert data to decimal numbers to binary and back again when communicating internally and with other computers
    • Identify the essential strengths of computers as systems

    listLesson sequence

    1. List professional fields and their struggles on the board
    2. Visit a few of the problems one at a time: Are computers a useful tool for solving this problem? Rate 1-3 with hand votes.
    3. Watch clip from War Games: Catherine and David are having fun playing what they think is a war simulation game for just a single terminal. They learn on the news that their game resulted in a panic by actual nuclear weapons controllers. David gets a call with computer data from the system at NORAD prompting for the game to continue.
    4. What does a phone have to do with text on a screen? Work an example of converting a phrase like "TO WIN THE GAME" to ASCII equivalent decimal digits and then to binary. An ASCII code table translates English letters to decimal numbers (base-10). Then a decimal to binary converter hops us over to ones and zeros.
    5. Each student translates his/her/their name from letters to binary and writes the converted value on their name card.

    sendProducts

  • A name card with English letters and their binary equivalent hanging on computer screens.

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    Monday, 10 September 2018

    Computer component station-based exploration

    live_helpGuiding questions

    • What parts make up a computer?
    • What do those parts do?
    • How do they work together?

    check_circleLearning Objectives

    • Describe digital storage in terms of number of audio files, MB, and ones and zeroes, converting between them.
    • Discuss a representation or example of the fundamental mechanisms at work inside of a computer to represent and translate data in binary form

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    Wednesday, 3 October 2018

    So many trees!

    check_circleLearning Objectives

    • Create compelling displays of computer system diagrams
    • Create a graphical representation of a physical tree

    listLesson sequence

    1. Add to our folders: media use authorization

    straightenNote card diagnostic

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    Wednesday, 24 October 2018

    Web technology stack

    check_circleLearning Objectives

    • Using the developer consoles built into browsers, test which functions on a JS-heavy site can be disabled, which cannot.
    • Explain the role of cookies in Internet communication

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