Archive for the ‘School Advisory’ Category
Would you play this game?
September 28th, 2010
I love puzzles and small little programming projects. When you can combine those two at get a project that you can use for a good learning/teaching experience it is just a bit of gold. When the concepts you can get into the project go beyond programming so much the better. And I think I have found one of these nuggets. About a week ago someone sent the following puzzle to a mailing list I am on.
You walk into a casino and discover that they are offering an exciting new game called 52-Card Match, which is played with two ordinary 52-card decks of playing cards.
The player is handed one deck, and the dealer takes the other. The dealer thoroughly shuffles his deck and sets it face down in front of you. You can shuffle your deck as thoroughly as you please and then also set it face down in front of you.
The cards are then turned over one at a time from each deck, i.e. one from each deck is turned over simultaneously each time. If any pair matches exactly (rank and suit), the game is over and the casino wins.
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Imagine Cup–Solving the Worlds Problems Through Software
September 25th, 2010
There are many indications that today’s students are motivated as much, if not more, by the chance to make a difference in the world as they are to make money. By the same token it is not always obvious or clear to these students that computer science and software has huge potential to do a bit of both. But in fact computer science is making a big difference I the world and could potentially make an even larger difference. This is the logic behind the Imagine Cup, arguably the world’s premier student technology competitions, basing their theme around the UN Millennium Goals. The goal of the Imagine Cup most briefly is to:
Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems
So what is the competition? Actually a series of competitions and challenges that open the doors for multiple types of solutions in different areas of interest.
The top event is the Software Design competition to create real-world software applications using Microsoft technologies.
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Pretty Code
September 19th, 2010
Way back in the old days when programmers coded using simple text editors and command line editors there was a utility called Pretty Print (or some variation). These utilities would take text files as input and output code that was made more “pretty” and so easy to use. They would add consistent formatting of loops, comments, tab stops and space between keywords, variables and other elements of code. The results looked better when printed. One major benefit of all this is that reading code looking for bugs was a lot easier. I was reminded of this old utility when I read the post “You code like a girl!” which I included in my interesting links post.
Modern IDEs like Visual Studio make consistent formatting much easier than the old text editors did. They even color code things for you so that the difference between reserved words and variable names jump out at you. The obvious effect of all this is that the formatting looks nicer to some definitions of nice. It’s largely superficial as the code would run just as well if the formatting was poor, spacing was inconsistent, and there were no color coding at all.
Tags: Code
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LORAN Award
September 15th, 2010
LORAN Award The prestigious LORAN Award application forms are now available. In addition to having a high academic average, students who demonstrate character, service and leadership potential should apply for this award. Excellent applicants show a genuine commitment to serving others, great potential as leaders, strong academic performance and moral character, independent thinking, and a willingness to take meaningful risks. They also look for entrepreneurship and broad academic and extracurricular interests. Ross Sheppard may nominate only three applicants. Please visit their website http://loranaward.ca/sef/page/id/10.html?utm_source=High+School+Announcements&utm_campaign=0c166635b7-Loran_Awards_Announcement9_14_2010&utm_medium=email and pop by student services for more information. Because this is a nominated award, all applications need to be given to Mrs. Homeniuk by OCTOBER 8th to allow for selection and mailing.
Tags: Award, Loran Award
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Ivy League School Application Information Session
September 8th, 2010
Ivy League School Application Information Session
If you are thinking about attending an Ivy League school for post secondary studies, then you will want to attend the following session:
Who: Admission officers from Brown University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania
When: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 @7:00 p.m.
Where: Sir Winston Churchill School in Calgary
Topics will include applications for Canadian students, academic programs, admission policies, costs and more.
No RSVP is required. For more information, check out http://www.cbe.ab.ca/schools/view.asp?id=257
Tags: Application Information, Application Information Session, Information Session, Session
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Interesting Links 6 September 2010
September 4th, 2010
Happy Labor Day! Well here in the US anyway. Technically a public/work holiday and I do plan to spend most of it relaxing. Unless my wife has other plans that is. I spent yesterday doing some early fall yard work for example. But it looks good so it was worth it. I have spent some time collecting some of the more interesting links and bits of information I saw over the last week though. You can follow me on Twitter (@AlfredTwo) and see a lot of this sort of thing as I find it during the week. Also some conversation/chat with other interesting people about educational technology and other topics. Hope to see you on Twitter sometime.
Starting with a couple of community outreach pieces of news. One is that Microsoft has become a major sponsor of National Day of GiveCamp (on Twitter @GiveCamp) Give Camp is a weekend event where volunteer tech people from various companies get together to build tech solutions for non profits. Think of it as a computer age barn raising. Previous events have already helps a good number of organizations. Read more…
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Junior Girls Volleyball Tryouts
September 4th, 2010
Junior Girls Volleyball Tryouts
Female students interested in playing Volleyball! With our Senior Girls tryouts wrapping up this week, Junior Girls tryouts run next Tuesday, September 7th @ 4:00 PM and Wednesday, September 8th @ 3:45 PM. You must attend both tryouts.
The season gets going right away with a preseason tournament September 10-11.
Tags: Girls Volleyball, Girls Volleyball Tryouts, Tryouts, Volleyball Tryouts
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