Computer Science at Mass Academy is taught by Mrs.Taricco. The curriculum aligns with that of the AP Computer Science A Test, so students who wish to do so may opt to take the exam at the end of the year. In CS, students learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and Java through many collaborative and individual assignments. Over the course of the year, students code their own website, create and run programs in Java, compete in ACSL (American Computer Science League) contests, and participate in Apps for Good.
Random Circles is one of my favorite programs that I have created thus far. The goal of the program is to open an applet that produces a user-specified number of circles that are each of a random color and size in a random location. I had a lot of fun working through the logic of this program and think that the end result is fun to play around with. The logic of this code has also been essential for many of my other programs. It was a fun introduction to some of the classes that I had never heard of. This program also made me feel a sense of accomplishment as it was the first time I had produced a program that did something I found to be interesting and something I would play around with in my spare time.
Line Art was another fun program to think about logically. The goal of the program is to create the image to the right using only straight lines. There are many different ways to approach this problem, but I chose to use a for loop with an if loop to iterate up/down and across the x and y axes and draw the appropriate lines to create each corner. I used the same method with the inner rectangle to duplicate the pattern. I really like the way the final product came out and I think it was a great program for learning about iteration. However, it took a lot of trial and error and if I had the opportunity to start from scratch, I would have opted for a more mathematically sound method to ensure each increment was equidistant from the others.
