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Teencoder Series: Computer Programming Review by Dawn Oaks
Homeschool Programming, Inc.908 Birmingham Rd.
Suite 501-128
Alpharetta, GA 30004
888-606-7263
http://www.homeschoolprogramming.com/
The TeenCoder Computer Programming curriculum is a one-semester computer science course in the TeenCoder series. This course provides a broad base of computer instruction that is not limited to programming. However, a large part of the curriculum is a very hands-on approach to 'C' programming. The 'C' programming language is one of the most popular and widespread in the computer-programming world today.
The course begins with an introduction to the history of computers and computer hardware. The student is then immersed in computer programming through a variety of topics: understanding data types and data arrays, getting user input and finding runtime errors, controlling program flow with conditional expressions, working with numbers and math operations, string manipulation, loops and advanced program flow, creating and calling functions, and good coding techniques. The course wraps up with a thorough overview of the software development process. Throughout each of these topics, a student project is provided so that the student can practice the concept as it is introduced. The projects increase in complexity throughout the course, culminating in the final project that is completely of the student's design. All of the student's work is done using Microsoft's Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express Edition that ships with this product. This puts your student right in the same league using the same tools that the professionals do.
For the parent that has no computer programming experience, do not fear. The Teencoder Series products have an accompanying teacher's edition that includes sample tests with answer keys for each unit. There is also an activity solutions CD, which will provide you with the exact lines of code that you should see in your student's completed projects. There is no need for prior programming experience on your part. The actual teaching content is in the Student Textbook. This allows your self-directed learner to excel at his or her own pace with all of the information at his/her fingertips.
Prior to homeschooling my children, I worked for a medical software development company. The programmers in our organization used the same development software and languages that are contained in this course. This is not an outdated programming language or environment. The cost of the TeenCoder Computer Programming course is $85.00 on the www.homeschoolprogramming.com website. This is about $30.00 higher than a programmer's reference text published by Microsoft. However, the material provided in the TeenCoder Series is much more reader friendly, not to mention the value of the project code and tests with answer keys available in the teacher's edition. This product gets a definite thumbs up!
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