Class-level Methods and Inheritance

With the intense preparations for the Chistmas Concert and your teacher being sick I assume we need to catch up on everything that was planned for last week during this week.

Homework

• Complete the vocabulary of chapter 4 (except the last two words). The vocabulary sheet has to be handed in on Dec. 16, 08.
• Study for the vocabulary quiz on Dec. 16, 08.

Class-level Methods and Inheritance

Although our classes today and tomorow will be distracted by the exciting activities for the Christmas Concert you should be working concentrated to get your exercises completed and to set your mind on something new.

The new concept we are learning about are class-level methods as presented in section 4.3 of our textbook. Class- level methods are new methods that extend an already existing class and make it more powerful. Objetcs of the extended class can perform actions of all original methods and of the the newly created ones.

Class Work

Watch the Presentation about "Class-level methods and inheritance" (click the link to the right) and work on your exercises (see below).

Kristine: Continue working on chapter 2 and do the review for section 2.2 (as posted to the right), then start the Tips and Techniques 2 section and do the review questions for this part (posted to the right).

Exercises to be finished before Christmas

P. 129 Exercise 1: Snow people flip hats
P. 131 Exercise 5: Beetle band duet
P. 133 Exercise 9: Enhanced clever skater.
P. 134 Exercise 12: Funky Chicken Dance or Ninja Practice

Homework

• Complete the vocabulary of chapter 4 (except the last two words). The completed sheet has to be handed in on Dec. 15, 08.
  An empty vocabulary sheet is available here.
• Study for the vocabulary quiz on Dec. 15, 08.
  

No Class

Have fun at the Aquarium!

Once More: Methods and Parameters

How and why to create methods and how and why to use parameters in methods is quite important to understand. That's why we want to talk about this once more today.
In the lab everybody should be finishing up the Beetle Band Duet Method and exercise 1 of chapter 4: Snow people flip hats.

Parameters - Communication with Methods

Parameters are a way of communication with methods. They allow to pass on pieces of information to a method. Using this information a method then carries out it's action.
We have used some primitive methods with parameters: For example: the "turn" method can cause an object to turn in a certain direction depending on the value of the parameter.
Today we are learning how to create and use our own methods with parameters.

Homework

• Read Section 4.3 on Class-level Methods and Inheritance, pages 110-121, and
• answer the review questions 4.3.

One Step Further

After having finished the introductory part of our textbook we are now starting Part II: Object-Oriented and Event-Driven Programming Concepts. This means we are going one step further to understand some important concepts of programming.
Chapter 4 is about Classes, Objects, Methods and Parameters.
Today we are learning how methods can help to manage a large program and how stepwise refinement can help to develop a program. By the end of this class we will understand what world-level methods are and we will know how and why to create those.
The vocabulary sheet will help us to understand the new concepts and words presented.

Homework

• Read Section 4.2 on Parameters, pages 100-109, and
• answer the review questions 4.2.

End of Term 1 Project

Finish your project - it is due today.

• 

To be handed in (everything stapled together with your name):

• The picture of the scene,
• the flowchart,
• the exported and printed code.

That's the End of Term 1. We have finished Part I, the introduction to Alice.

Homework

• Read pages 89-100: Chapter 4: Classes, Objects, Methods and Parameters.
  
• Answer the review questions for Section 4.1: World-level methods.