The teacher is preparing to teach a new AP Computer Science course in Java next year. The course syllabus is changing to require the Java programming language instead of C++. The teacher has found an excellent textbook for the intro-level A course that covers the necessary topics and is accessible for students. Upgrades are needed to the classroom hardware, including more RAM and hard drive space, to effectively teach the graphics and multimedia aspects of Java. The teacher is using the Knoppix Linux operating system on a bootable CD for now but may need to install it on a hard drive partition to fully support Java.

1. Professional Plan 2002–2003
Midyear Review
To: Susan Knors, Principal Baldwin SHS
From: A. Jorge García, Teacher of Mathematics
Date: 12/13/2002
Re: Professional Plan
Syllabus:
According to http://apcentral.collegeboard.com, The AP Computer
Science (APCS) syllabus is changing next year. The Acorn book is not yet
available. However, APCS/AB will include many of the current topics. The
primary change is one of programming paradigm. Therefore, the College
Board is requiring a new language, Java SDK 1.4.1 from http://www.sun.com,
as the new vehicle of instruction.
Textbook:
As in 1997 with the switch from Pascal to C++, there is no one
book good for both the A and AB topics in Java. I have found an
excellent text for the A course, however, that I am currently using to
study Java myself. This book is by Cay Horstmann and published by
Wiley, Computing Concepts with Java Essentials, is very complete for
the A course and accessible to the student. The supporting website,
http://www.horstmann.com, is a gold mine of supportive documents
including a test bank and very instructive lab book.
Hardware:
To teach Java effectively, Room 429 needs to be upgraded
significantly. Java is a platform independent programming language
a:ProfPlanMidYear20022003.mem.doc 1

2. Professional Plan 2002–2003
Midyear Review
that creates graphics and multimedia applications for the desktop and
the web. We need at least 128MB RAM and a 10GB partition on the
hard drive for Linux on a Pentium III class PC.
Software:
As we do in APCS currently, we will be using a series of GUI
editors (KDE Kate) and shell compilers (GNU GCC) included in the
operating system we use. NB: we use only FreeWare (http://gnu.org).
Firmware:
We just upgraded the operating system to Knoppix Linux
(http://www.knoppix.net). This is a very flexible system that will run
on any PC with a bootable CDROM drive. This operating system is
more than suitable for our needs in Java. Currently, we are using a
CD­R installation for C++. This version of Knoppix only supports Java
console applications, no graphics or multimedia. GCC and Knoppix are
updated frequently. I hope that a full version of Java will be available
by September. If GCC does not support Java in this manner, then the
CD can be installed on a Linux partition of at least 10GB and Java
SDK 1.4.1 can be installed on the hard drive directly.
Summary:
All in all, I think that my preparation for teaching the new
APCS course next year is going very well.
a:ProfPlanMidYear20022003.mem.doc 2