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The East Side Union High School District encompasses a 180 square mile area of San Jose bordering on Silicon Valley. It is one of California's largest high school districts, with an enrollment of over 24,200 students at 16 high schools. The student population is diverse:
- 42.1% Hispanic
- 28.2% Asian
- 13.6% White
- 9.8% Filipino
- 4.7% African American
- 1.1% Pacific Islander
- 0.4% American Indian
Educators in the district took a wide-angle view of how to approach pre-Java and Java instruction at both middle and high school levels. They wanted to be sure that students, teachers, and even guidance counselors could follow the path of achievement from basic computing skills to pre-Java activities and full-blown Java programming courses. They also saw the potential impact a Java course of studies could have on a district of learners within close proximity to a high-technology mecca of opportunity: Silicon Valley.
Taking a Creative Approach
A team of teachers from three schools arrived at a unique reward system as a method of motivating all students to excel. Students were given the chance to earn Java bucks for the successful and timely completion of pre-Java and Java programming activities. To further encourage increased participation and excellence, computer laboratories were available during additional after-school hours, allowing students a chance to practice their skills while completing assignments. Each Java Buck earned could then be used towards the purchase of items during an end-of-year, Java Expo. The Java Expo also served as a showcase for student work.
A Java Prep Logo Contest offered students another chance for creative and artistic recognition. Students submitted sample logo designs to Sun employees for judging, and the winning logo was then featured and used throughout all district activities.
Students were given the chance to visit Sun's corporate offices in Santa Clara during a Job Shadow Day arranged to give students insight into industry trends, job responsibilities, and other technology opportunities. Over fifty students attended the event at Sun.
District Curriculum
District educators used funds from the Sun Foundation to develop new courses in Computer Information Technology, Web Design, An Introduction to Java, Java Programming, and a series of challenging Java Games. A curriculum guide for teachers was also developed in support of the courses. The materials have been developed with funds from the Sun Foundation and are designed to be accessible to a wide variety of educators. Please find descriptions of a few sample presentations and gaming activities below:
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Title
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Category
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Brief Description
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Pre-Java and/or Java presentation
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This presentation introduces students to the history of Java as a rich programming language. Examples are given of programming code, applets, drivers, classes, html files, statements
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Java presentation
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This presentation goes beyond an introduction to Java by presenting the fundamentals of Java and its terminology
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Java presentation
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This presentation reviews conditional statements in Java and how to program them
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Java presentation
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This presentation reviews loops and how to program them
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Java presentation
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This presentation introduces students to design, analyze, and document technology projects involving Java.
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Java gaming activity
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Students will learn to use Java to solve logical problems implementing a classic "turn"-based strategy game. Players will cross 200 miles of desert in seven days while keeping themselves and their camels sufficiently fed and hydrated. Students will only write code but make it implement an algorithm
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Java gaming activity
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Students will learn to use Java to solve logical problems by implementing a classic "turn"-based strategy game. Players will act as feudal lords making decisions about buying and selling land and planting specific acreage. Students will have to develop algorithms to model all of the parameters involved in this game as they write a Hammurabi class with all of the required attributes and methods. Driving this class will be an applet with input to reflect the combination of decisions made by the feudal lord. Students will also need to develop a test suite to adequately test their code.
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Java activity
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Students will determine whether of not a given year is a leap year by implementing an algorithm and applet. They will also develop a page of HTML.
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Java activity
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Student will learn to convert an integer value for month to a string value by implementing an algorithm and applet. They will also develop a page of HTML.
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