CSE3
Fall 2012
Computational Thinking
Overview
By Stephanie Gear
Presentation of Information with Microsoft
PowerPoint
Using Microsoft PowerPoint, students
were able to make a number of charts
detailing stocks of their choice. These
charts included comparisons of prices,
investments, and a chart detailing
%profit or %loss depending on the
company. Each student was
encouraged to research different
companies depending on their
interests, so on my charts are
Microsoft, Yahoo! Inc, HP Company,
Oracle, and AOL, Inc.
CSE3, or Fluency with Information Technology, is a lower
division computer science class, geared toward teaching
students how to master basic computer functions and
enabling them to create things that they can show off in the
real world outside of class.
Desktop Publishing with Microsoft Word
Using Microsoft Word, students were able to create
more advanced documents using photos from the
web, hyperlinks, headings, quote boxes, and various
other textually advanced strategies. To demonstrate
these ideas on our own, students made a general
document about colors, and a more personalized
document of their career plan and future goals.
Making Information Available to the World
with HTML and Web Pages
Using HTML write up language,
students were able to put our
work on line through our own
personal web pages. We made
various creations, including a
calendar of the month of October,
with pictures and absolute
pathway links to information
about different holidays, as well
as a web site dedicated to
showing
our
triton
pride,
complete with a link to UCSD’s
homepage.
Dynamic Webpage Programming with JavaScript
Similar to HTML, students used
JavaScript to make creations to put on
the web. We made a JavaJuice menu,
which calculates drinks ordered and spits
out a total price depending on what is
entered, as well as a donation site to a
cause of the student’s choosing, where a
visitor would select the amount of money
they wished to donate, and a pop up box
would thank them and tell them what
kind of member they are, whether it gold,
silver, platinum, etc.
Data Analysis and Visualization with Microsoft
Excel
Using Microsoft Excel, students were able to
create a real life budget, monitoring various
expenses that they need to consider
throughout a calendar year. Students first
entered their various expenses into an excel
spread sheet, and from there were able to
turn this data into a pie graph and a bar
graph. Some expenses included housing,
food, clothing, taxes, insurance, and other
miscellaneous expenses.