What I Learned
This year I learned a lot of things from AP Computer Science Principles. The vast majority of these things had to do with coding with python and its language. Some things we learned about involving python include:
- Abstraction
- Abstraction is the process of cutting down on your code. Your code is still running the same manner but you are using things like loops and definitions to shorten your code and make it easier to understand.
- For loops
- A for loop is telling the code to continue to do something for a specific amount of time. So you could tell the code to run 5 times or 3 times or however long you want it to.
- If statements
- An if statement basically checks to see if something is true or false within your code. If it’s true, it will run on whatever you tell it to do, however if it is false it will skip over that small line of code.
- While loops
- A while loop is basically saying that while one thing is true, the code will continue to loop. Once that thing becomes false, then the loop will break and the code will move onto the next line/
- Lists
- A list is something that you don’t really change in your code. You can add or abstract to that list and later on have certain parts of the lists printed, sorted or removed completely. It makes it a little easier to sort your code.
- Boolean
- A boolean sets a variable to be true or false which helps other statement slike if statements or while loops run
Some things we learned about outside of coding include:
- Binary decimal system
- A system of numbers that assigns a binary code to each digit between 0 and 9 in base 10
- Routing
- This is the process of selecting the best path of connection. Computer networks are connected via nodes and routing is the best option of connection.
- DNS
- DNS means domain name system and is the phonebook of the internet. We access info through these online domains and domain name system translates domain names into IP addresses so these browsers can load internet resources
- IP addressing
- IP stands for internet protocol. Every time a device connects to the internet, it is assigned its own unique IP address. It is an address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. It’s a numerical label assigned to devices that use the internet to communicate
If you’re interested in some of the things we learned to code, below is a link to a code I wrote in class given the skills I learned from this class.
https://codehs.com/sandbox/id/haunted-house-story-R39Dqo
If I could make one change to the course, I would add in more coding in quarter four. This year throughout the first semester we spent quite a bit of time coding, but in the second semester we barely did any coding, and we didn’t do any at all during the fourth quarter.
