Herbert J. Bernstein Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science 1300 William Floyd Parkway, B205, Shirley NY 11967
21471 CSC 1009N -- Introduction to Spreadsheets and Data Analysis -- Spring 2014 Monday, Wednesday 1:00 pm -- 2:21 pm KSC 102A

This web page is http://www.bernstein-plus-sons.com/.dowling/CSC1009S14/CSC1009_Syllabus.html
Copyright © 2009, 2012, 2014 Herbert J. Bernstein and other parties. All rights reserved.

This is the syllabus for CSC 1009 for Spring 2014. As the course moves forward, students should return to this page frequently for updated material.

Catalog description:

The Spring 2014 section is:

Intro to Spreadsh & Data Analy - 21471 - CSC 1009N - 0

Associated Term: Winter/Spring 2014 Registration Dates: Nov 07, 2013 to May 12, 2014 Levels: Undergraduate Instructors: Herbert J. Bernstein (P) Oakdale Campus Lecture Schedule Type Classroom Instructional Method 3.000 Credits Scheduled Meeting Times Type Time Days Where Date Range Schedule Type Instructors Class 1:00 pm - 2:21 pm MW Kramer Science Center 102A Jan 27, 2014 - May 12, 2014 Lecture Herbert J. Bernstein

Instructor:

• Name: Prof. Herbert J. Bernstein
• Brookhaven Campus: Office: A210, Lab: B205
• Phone: +1-631-244-1935
• Email:

Office Hours:

• by appointment; and
• Monday, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm in KSC 103 on the Oakdale campus;
• Tuesday, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm in B205 on the Brookhaven campus;
• Wednesday, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm in KSC 103 on the Oakdale campus.

Note that, in general, Dr. Bernstein will be on the Brookhaven campus on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and on the Oakdale Campus on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. If at all possible, please use email to schedule meetings in advance to avoid conflicts with other students and other obligations of the instructor.

For more information see http://www.bernstein-plus-sons.com/.dowling/HJB_Contact_Info.html.

Required Texts:

• James Gips, "Mastering Excel 2010, A Problem-Solving Approach", Pearson Learning Solutions 2011, ISBN-10: 1-256-35676-X, ISBN-13: 978-1-256-35676-9
• Jacek Artymiak, "Beginning OpenOffice Calc" Apress 2011, ISBN-13: 978-1-4302-3159-2

Students are responsible for all assigned readings even if the material is not discussed with the instructor.

Required Materials

• This is a computer course and much of the resources for this course are on-line. You must have a computer with internet access and a webcam. On that computer you will need to have a good web browser and a recent version of Skype. You will need to install either Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc, preferably both. You will also need Google gmail, Google Sites and Google Blogger. You may use the laboratory computers at Dowling, but you will work more effectively using your own computer.
• Avery 43462 hard-bound composition book, stitched, 10 x 7 7/8. A hard-bound laboratory notebook. An inexpensive black-and-white covered composition book will suffice but it must be bound (not looseleaf).

  Keeping clear written records is an important part of working in any scientific field.

Students are expected to have their text books no later than the second week of the semester.

Attendance:

This course has 2 on-site meetings per week and you are urged to participate in the on-site meetings, but the essential materials other than the texts are available online. If you miss any of the on-site sessions, you will need to do additional work online and see the instructor during office hours and/or via Skype.

Students who fail to maintain regular contact with the instructor prior to the midterm will get a midterm warning and be advised to withdraw from the course.

Grading Policy:

• Graded assignments and weekly quizzes 33.333%
• Portfolio Project 33.333%
• Comprehensive Final 33.333%

As noted above students will be given weekly quizzes. The weekly quizzes are open-web, open-book, open-notes quizzes, but that won't work in your favor if you don't do the reading.

Every student will be required to maintain a contemporaneous hardbound notebook recording all significant activities related to this course. The notebook should record the major topics discussed, questions about the subject matter of the course and the answers when they are found. You will find a good notebook very helpful in taking the final, but, more importantly, the process of reading and taking detailed notes on what you are reading will help you to learn the material.

In addition to the notebook, you will need an on-line blog and website for this course, both to act as a supplement to the hardbound notebook and to provide a path for the submission of assignments. You may not submit spreadsheets as attachments to email. They are not likely to get past the instructor's spam filer. Instead, you should post spreadsheets to your web site and send the URL to the instructor.

You are required to do a project to add to your permanent portfolio to complete this course. See the new Dowling College Computer Science Portfolios policy. For this course your project should be a useful simulation spreadsheet of your own creation. You should think terms of a project you would like to show to a prospective employer or graduate school. Your name will be on it, and everybody in the world will be able to see it and try it. Your skills will be on display for everybody to see. Do a good job.

All students will be required to communicate with the instructor via email, and many assignments will require work to be posted on the web and/or be submitted via email.

Whether you use your Dowling email account as your primary email or not, you are required to get a Google gmail account as well, so that you will have access to the various Google products you need to do the work for this course.

Students must do the assignments steadily throughout the semester, not just to show that they know the material, but to give them the practice they need to learn the material well. Therefore, students are encouraged to submit all assignments on time. If an assignment is submitted one week late there will be a 50% penalty for that assignment. No more than three late assignments will be accepted during the semester. No assignments will be accepted that are two or more weeks late.

There will not be an in-class midterm exam. The mid-term evaluation will be based on the notebook, assignments and quizzes.

An open-notes, open-computer/calculator final will be given.

Course Syllabus

• Administrative matters.
  • Dowling student accounts.
• Review of Professional Issues:
  • Ethics on use of technology
  • Murphy's Law, KISS
• Background
  • History of computing
  • Overview of programming languages and the compilation process
  • Fundamental programming constructs: syntax and semantics of a higher-level language; variables, types, expressions, and assignment; simple I/O; conditional and iterative control structures; functions and parameter passing; structured decomposition
  • Assembly level machine organization: basic organization of the von Neumann machine; instruction fetch, decode, and execution; assembly language programming for a simulated machine
  • Software development methodology: fundamental design concepts and principles; structured design; testing and debugging strategies; test-case design; programming environments; testing and debugging tools
  • Fundamental concepts used in programming
  • Decision making.
  • Loops
  • Introduction to arrays or lists; subscripts or indexes.
  • Graphics
• Spreadsheets
  • Creating simple worksheets
  • Controlling the appearance of a worksheet
  • Functions
  • Managing cells
  • Multiple worksheets
  • Charts
  • Logical functions
  • Conditional execution
  • Date, time, finance
  • Random numbers
  • Data management
  • Goal seeking
• Visual Basic for Applications and Open Office Calc Macros
  • Recording and running macros
    Recording Macros in Excel
    Recording Macros in Open Office
  • Programming macros
    Getting Started with VBA in Excel 2010
    Porting Excel/VBA to Calc/StarBasic
    • VBA Syntax (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/gg264383%28v=office.14%29.aspx)
      • Very rich and complex
      • Much of it can be ignored
      • Procedures associated with objects
      • Each proceedure is a sequence of declarations and executable statements to be obeyed in order
      • You must know
        DIM variable AS type
        the assignment statement
        function calls
    • Variables, Constants, Enumerations
      Characters, Numbers, Types
    • Arrays
    • Objects
    • Functions
    • Decisions
    • Loops
  • Excel and VBA
    • User Defined Functions
      See: http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/user-defined-functions.html
      http://www.ozgrid.com/VBA/Functions.htm
      http://www.fontstuff.com/vba/vbatut03.htm
      • Can be directly accessed from a spreadsheet cell
      • No need to create separate forms -- the spreadsheet provides the input and output
      • Not as general as macros, but takes care of most routine needs for extensions to Excel
      • In current forms of Excel, handled in VBA modules
      • Can be set-up in add-ins, avoiding the security alerts from macros sent with individual spreadsheets.
    • Forms
      • See Excel/VBA userforms 101 and FAQ
      • Provide more visually pleasing ways to manage input and output for VBA code than simple Excel cells.
      • Can be hooked to a button on the spreadsheet Run a Macro from a Command Button
      • Controls are used to build forms.

Course Objectives

• To understand the context in using computers to process information
• To understand how to use a computer to help solve problems
• To understand the concepts of spreadsheets
• To understand the concepts of VBA
• To understand how to use VBA and Excel to solve problems
• To understand strategies that are useful in debugging.

Assignments

Please consult the course assignments page frequently.