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Computer Science 12


Homework assignments




Assignment 1 (preparing to write a paper - first part due Tuesday, September 6, 2011)

Obtain Jerry Waxman's CS 12 lecture notes, available at the Copy Center under Gino’s Pizza, across Kissena Blvd from QC. During the next week and a half, skim through the first third of the notes (up to but not including the lectures on Excel) and choose a topic for the paper that you'll be asked to write. The paper may be on any of the computer-related topics mentioned in the notes EXCEPT the Microsoft products that we'll be teaching you about (Word, Excel, and Access). Email me, by no later than Tuesday, Septermber 6, about the topic you have chosen.

Then reasearch the paper using Jerry Waxman's notes plus at least one other printed (offline) source plus at least two websites. Send me email containing a list of your sources by no later than Tuesday, September 13.

The first draft of your paper must be submitted by noon on Friday, September 23. Submit it via Blackboard. You should also bring a copy of your first draft with you to class on that day (either on a flash drive or by emailing it to yourself) and again on Tuesday, October 4 (a Queens College make-believe Friday). We will show you how to use various Microsoft Word 2007/2010 features to make the paper look nicer.

Your first draft, which must be finished by noon on September 23, should be at least three pages long and must include at least one quote from each of your four sources, and must have at least three sections with headings. We will then show you how to do citations, footnotes, bibliography, index, and table of contents, using Microsoft 2007/2010 features which make these chores very easy.

The final paper itself, which will be due later in the semester, should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, an index at the end, and properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

Your first steps will be to choose the topic, gather sources, and tell me about the topic and the sources by emailing me at the following address (not any other email address of mine, please):

dnixon-cs12@nyclocal.net


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Assignment 2 (paper topic selection due Tuesday, September 6, 2011; Excel and HTML parts due Friday, September 9, 2011)

  1. Paper:

    2. Continue work on your paper, as follows: (1) Email me, by no later than Tuesday, September 6, about the topic you have chosen. (2) By no later than noon on Tuesday, September 13, email me your list of sources. (2) Submit the first draft via Blackboard, by no later than noon on Friday, September 23. It should have the following filename:

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

    Your paper may be on any of the computer-related topics that are introduced in Jerry Waxman's lecture notes, other than Microsoft Office products such as Word, Excel, and Access. Your paper must use four sources, including at least one printed offline source (e.g. a physical book from the library) and at least two websites. Your first draft, which must be finished by noon on September 23, should be at least three pages long and must include at least one quote from each of your four sources, and must have at least three sections with headings. We will then show you how to do citations, footnotes, bibliography, index, and table of contents, using Microsoft 2007/2010 features which make these chores very easy.

  2. Excel assignment:

    1. Making believe you're a teacher, create an Excel spreadsheet with columns as follows: (1) a list of names, (2) five columns of quiz scores, (2) two columns of results to be computed from quiz scores, (3) two columns of in-class exam scores, and (4) the final exam score. The two columns of results computed from the quiz scores must be (a) the average quiz score and (b) the average with lowest score dropped.

      2. Make rows for at least five students. The names of your imaginary students, and the quiz scores, will be left to your imagination. Just don't copy them from another student. The quiz scores should range between 0 to 10, while the exam scores should range between 0 and 100.

      Save your Excel spreadsheet with a filename having the following format:

      • last-first-roster.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

      Then format the "Grade Roster" title and "Contact" lines to make them look nice, merging adjacent cells as necessary to eliminate overlap. To the left of the scores, you must have columns for imaginary students' names, first a column for the last names, then a column for the first names. Make up a unique set of names (not used by other Computer Science 12 students). Above the scores, there must be a row for column headings for the scores. The column headings should be: Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Quiz 3, Quiz 4, Quiz 5, Exam 1, Exam 2, and Final Exam.

      Then, in between the quiz scores and the exam scores, insert two columns for calculated results involving the quiz scores. The first of these should be a column for the average quiz score. The second of these should be a column which computes an average of quiz scores with the lowest grade dropped. (Hint: Use a formula involving the SUM, COUNT, and MIN functions, not the AVERAGE function.)

    2. In a separate file, write an invoice for goods ordered from a store. The invoice should have columns for product name, per-unit price, quantity ordered, and total price. There should be rows for at least four products. Underneath the last row, below the total price column there should cells (with identifying text in cells to the left of them) for subtotal, tax, and then total. The tax should be computed from the tax rate, which should be placed in a separate cell somewhere.

      3. In order to do the tax computation, referring to the tax rate in some specific cell, you will need to use absolute addressing, so that your formula will still refer to the tax rate in the same cell when you drag the formula.

      All columns should have clear headings. And, somewhere above the headings, there should be cells for the store's name, the date, and the customer's name and address. Use two or more merged cells for the store's name, the customer's name, and each line of the customer's address, so that these will display nicely, and use an appropriate heading format for the store's name. Put your own name and email address in appropriately merged cells at the bottom.

      The invoice should have a filename with the following format:

      • last-first-invoice.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

      Your invoice must be unique, containing a store name, product names, and prices different from those in files submitted by other students in Computer Science 12.

    Submit BOTH of the above files in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab next week. (The two files should be sumitted separately in the same area on BlackBoard, not in a ZIP file. You must submit both at once, not separately.) We will use them again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.

  3. HTML assignment:

    Begin creating three HTML pages that you would actually like to display on a website you'll be creating later in the semester. The two pages must be:

    1. A file named  index.html ,  which will contain a link to your other page,  aboutme.html ,.

    2. A file named  aboutme.html ,  which will contain a link back to  index.html ,  and also a link to this website's main page,  http://cs12.dnixon.nyclocal.net/ .

    When you are finished, put both your HTML files into a ZIP file with the following filename:

    • last-first-website.zip

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

    Submit the ZIP file in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab during our next class session.


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Assignment 3 (list of paper sources due Tuesday, September 13, 2011; Excel and HTML parts due Friday, September 16, 2011)

  1. Paper:

    2. Continue work on your paper, as follows: (1) By no later than Tuesday, September 13, email me your list of sources. (2) Submit the first draft via Blackboard, by no later than noon on Friday, September 23. It should have the following filename:

    replacing "last" and "first" with your actual last and first names.

  2. Excel assignment:

    1. Continuing the grade roster assignment from last week:

      2. Below the rows for the students, add rows for (1) the class average for each quiz, exam, or calculated result, (2) the class's lowest score for each quiz, exam, or calculated result, and the class's highest score for each quiz, exam, or calculated result.

      Below the grade roster, create a column chart showing the lowest, average, and maximum scores for each quiz, exam, and calculated result. (The easiest way to do this will be to create a column chart for your entire roster, then right click on it and click "Select Data" to edit the chart, then delete unwanted parts. Also, before you create the chart, it is recommended that you temporarily remove any heading you have at the top of the column for students' names, so that the other column headings will be recognized as headings.) See this week's Excel tutorials for step-by-step instructions on creating charts.

      As before, your Excel spreadsheet should have a filename having the following format:

      • last-first-roster.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

    2. Continuing the invoice assignment from last week:

      3. Pretty it up. Among other things, it should now display a date.

      As before, the invoice should have a filename with the following format:

      • last-first-invoice.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

    Submit BOTH of the above files in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab next week. (The two files should be sumitted separately in the same area on BlackBoard, not in a ZIP file. You must submit both at once, not separately.) We will use them again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.

  3. HTML assignment:

    Begin creating three HTML pages that would actually be appropriate to display on a personal website. The three pages must be:

    1. A file named  index.html ,  which will briefly introduce your site and contain links to your other pages.

    2. At least two other pages on any topics you like, within reason. (The topic does not need to be computer-related. The topics can be any hobby of yours, for example, as long as it stays within Queens College's computer use policies. Or your site could be about you. For exampple, one of the pages could be your resume (minus street address, to protect your privacy).The two or more pages other than your index page must each contain a link back to your index page.

    In addition to the local links amongst your pages, at least one of your pages must also contain links to other websites.

    When you are finished, put all your HTML files into a ZIP file with the following filename:

    • last-first-website.zip

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

    Submit the ZIP file in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab during our next class session..


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Assignment 4 (due Friday, September 23, 2011)

  1. Paper:

    2. Continue work on your paper, as follows: Submit the first draft via Blackboard, by no later than noon on Friday, September 23. It should have the following filename:

    The first draft must contain at least three pages and must be divided into at least three sections, with headings. It is strongly recommended, also, that the first draft contain quotes from at least some of your sources. (The second draft will be required to contain at least one quote from all of your sources, which must include at least two websites and at least one physical offline source such as a book.)

    In our next class we will show you how to style the headings, which you will need to be able to do in order to create a table of contents later.

  2. Excel assignment:

    1. Continuing the grade roster assignment from last week:

      2. Add columns for the total score and "pass/fail." The total score will be based on the following formula: 40% final exam, plus 15% first in-class exam, plus 15% second in-class exam, plus 30% of ten times the quiz average with lowest score dropped. (The quiz score needs to be multiplied by ten to scale it up from a range of 0 to 10 to a range of 0 to 100, to be consistent with the exam scores.) The "pass/fail" column will say "pass" if the total score is at least 65, "fail" if the total score is less than 65.

      Fix all errors mentioned in the feedback you got on Blackboard from your previous version.

      As before, your Excel spreadsheet should have a filename having the following format:

      • last-first-roster.xlsx

    2. Continuing the invoice assignment from last week:

      3. Continuing the invoice example from last week, add a cell which computes discounts as follows: (1) No discount for the first $100. (2) For subtotals above $100, five percent of the amount that the subtotal exceeds $100. For subtotals above $500, an additional five percent of the amount that the subtotal exceeds $500.

      There should be separate cells for (1) the original subtotal, (2) the discount, (3) the subtotal with discount subtracted, and (4) the total with sales tax added.

      As before, the invoice should have a filename with the following format:

      • last-first-invoice.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

      Your invoice must be unique, containing a store name, product names, and prices different from those in files submitted by other students in Computer Science 12.

    Submit BOTH of the above files in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab next week. (The two files should be sumitted separately in the same area on BlackBoard, not in a ZIP file. You must submit both at once, not separately.) We will use them again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.


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Assignment 5 (due Tuesday, October 4, 2011)

  1. Paper:

    2. Submit the second draft via Blackboard, by no later than noon on Tuesday, October 4. The file must have a filename with the following format:

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

    The second draft should be at least three pages long. It must contain at least one quote from each of your four sources. The second draft should also be divided into at least three sections, with section headings.

  2. Excel Assignment:

    1. Create a spreadsheed listing at least 10 sales people who work for some particular company, to compute their rank as employees. The spreadsheet should have columns for the salespersons' names, the date that they were hired, the dollar amount of sales by each sales person during the past month, and the sales person's rank. Sales people have rank 3 if they have worked for the company for at least five years and sold at least $20,000 worth of goods during the past month. They have rank 2 if they have either worked for the company for at least five years or sold at least $20,000 during the past month. They have rank 1 if neither of the above is true. Format the spreadsheet as a table.

      2. You might find it helpful to include an additional computed column for the number of years an employee has worked for the company (computed from the date hired). This may make it easier for you to compute the person's rank.

      This spreadsheet should have a filename with the following format:

      • last-first-salesforce.xlsx

      Submit the above file in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the file in lab for all future weeks. We will use it again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.

    2. Continuing the invoice example from two weeks ago, let's say the store decides to start selling some food items, if it didn't already sell food, or, conversely, let's say that the store now decides to sell some non-food items, if it was already selling food. The point being, some items are now taxable and others aren't.

      3. Add some rows for the new items, and add the following two columns: (1) a column indicating whether a given item is taxable (e.g., a "T" if taxable, blank otherwise), and (2) the amount of sales tax on a given item (zero if it is not taxable). The total tax should then be computed by adding up the taxes on individual items, rather than based on the subtotal of all items.

      When computing tax, you will need to refer to a single cell holding the tax rate. You'll need to use absolute addressing (with the dollar signs) to refer to that cell.

      Begin from the next-to-last version of the invoice. Do not use a version of the invoice that has discounts, which will make your computations much more complicated.

      As before, the invoice should have a filename with the following format:

      • last-first-invoice.xlsx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

      Your invoice must be unique, containing a store name, product names, and prices different from those in files submitted by other students in Computer Science 12.


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    Assignment 6 (due Friday, October 14, 2011)

    1. Excel assignment:

      1. Continuing the invoice example from last week, with taxable and non-taxable items. Do the same example again, this time using SUMIF. The use of SUMIF will allow you to simplify your spreadsheet, perhaps eliminating a column.

        2. As before, the invoice should have a filename with the following format:

        • last-first-invoice.xlsx

        where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last and first name.

        Your invoice must be unique, containing a store name, product names, and prices different from those in files submitted by other students in Computer Science 12.

      2. Table of sales people (continued from two weeks ago):

        3. Continuing the "sales force" exercise from two weeks ago: A little further down on the worksheet, create a separate table containing results computed from the other table. There should be rows for each rank of employee and columns for (1) the total number of employees with a given rank, (2) the total amount of sales by all employees of a given rank, and (4) the average sales by employees of a given rank.

        This spreadsheet should have a filename with the following format:

        • last-first-salesforce.xlsx

      Submit both of the above files in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the files in lab next week. (The two files should be sumitted separately in the same area on BlackBoard, not in a ZIP file.) We will use them again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.

      • last-first-website.zip

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and first name, respectively. Also, please have access to this file in lab next week, because we will continue work on your HTML files in future lab sessions and homework assignments.

    2. Paper, draft 3

      3. Write the third draft of your paper. The third draft should be between four and seven pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The third draft must have citations, a bibliography, a table of contents at the beginning, and properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), and at least three sections (in addition to the biblography) than the bibliography) whose headings will appear in a table of contents at the beginning. The bibliography, citations, table of contents, and footnote placement must be automatically generated, and must be re-generatble in Microsoft Word 2010 in the version you submit. (This means you must submit it from a machine which uses Microsoft Word 2010 -- otherwise, there will likely be incompatibilities.) The paper itself must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

      The paper must be in a file with the following filename:

      • last-first-paper.docx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.


    Both the Excel assignment and the draft of your paper must be submitted, via BlackBoard, by no later than the due date, at the beginning of our class session. If you have any trouble submitting them, come early to lab and ask me to help you. (Have access to your files in lab, of course.)


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    Assignment 7 (due Friday, October 21, 2011)

    1. Excel assignment:

      1. Continuing the grade roster assignment from previous weeks, replace the "quiz average with lowest score dropped" by "quiz average with lowest two scores dropped." (Hint: Use the SMALL function.)

        2. Using a separate spreadsheet, play with both the SMALL and LARGE functions until you are fully comfortable with them.

      2. Experiment with the PMT, PV, and FV functions, applying them both to loans and to savings accounts with interest. Also, try varying the period of the payments (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual).

      You are not asked to submit any of the above via Blackboard, but you are expected to become fluent enough with the PMT, PV, FV, SMALL, and LARGE functions that you can use them on a quiz.

    2. Paper, draft 4

      3. Write the fourth draft of your paper. This time, you'll get feedback on the content, not just the format and your use of Microsoft Word features. <;>It should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. Citations should appear in parentheses immediately after each quote. Footnotes are too be used not for citations but for a few little digressions off the main topic. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

      The paper's section headings (with heading styles), table of contents, bibliography, citations, and footnotes must all be done using the relevant Microsoft Word 2010 features (and NOT any earlier version of Word).

      The paper must have the following filename:

      • last-first-paper.docx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.


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    Assignment 8 (due Friday, October 28, 2011)

    1. Access assignment: Postponed to a later week.

    2. Excel assignment:

      3. Experiment with using Goal Seek with various functions. Try using GOALSEEK with each one of the financial functions (PMT, PV, FV) to simulate one of the other financial functions.

      Experiment also with using Goal Seek with various other Excel functions too. Try some examples similar to the ones in the tutorials.

      You will not be asked to upload a spreadsheet to Blackboard, but you are expected to become fluent enough in the use of Goal Seek with various functions that you can answer quiz questions about them.

    3. Blog:

      4. Create a blog on Wordpress.com. You may use either your real name or a psuedonym. Write a first blog post briefly introducing yourself and any topic that is of interest to you (limited only by Queens College's computer use policies).

      Then go to your dashboard, which will have a web address similar to username.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ (replacing "username" with your actual Wordpress username). In the left hand column, click "Appearance." You will be taken to the first of several pages of possible "themes" for your blog, in random order. (The themes are arranged in various other orders, linked on that page: "A-Z", "Popular", "Newest", "Premium", and "Friends of WP.com".) Experiment with activating several of the free themes.

      Then write a second brief blog post voicing your thoughts and feelings about three specific Wordpress themes (which you should mention by name).

      Copy and paste the URL of your blog (http://username.wordpress.com/ replacing "username" with your actual Wordpress username) into the "notes" area of the relevant page on Blackboard. (Do not submit a file.)

      A list of links to blogs by all students in this class will be posted here on this website later in the semester, so that you can post comments on each other's blogs.

    4. Practice using a command-line interface, and preparing to use a Unix system next week:

      5. Practice using the Windows Command Prompt, as instructed in this week's tutorials on the Windows Command Prompt.

      Make sure you can access the Unix site for this course, as instructed in this week's tutorials on WinSCP. (Next week you'll be uploading your website there.)

    5. Paper:

      6. Your paper will be due two weeks from now. It should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 18. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

      The paper must have the following filename:

      • last-first-roster.docx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.


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    Assignment 9 (due Friday, November 4, 2011)

    1. Excel assignment:

      2. Practice using VLookup as in this week's Excel tutorials. Practice first by duplicating one or more of the examples in the tutorials.

      Modify your old "invoice" file so that it contains a separate "Inventory" table (located further down in the spreadsheet), listing products together with their unit prices, quantity in stock, and the column indicating whether a given item is taxable. The new table should also contain at least a few more products besides the ones in the invoice. (The idea here is that the inventory table will contain information that stays the same for all buyers, whereas the invoice itself will vary from one buyer to another.) Then, in the original invoice table itself, replace the hard-coded numbers in the "unit price" column with VLookUp formulas which look up the unit price in the separate inventory table, using VLookUp. Likewise, replace the hard-coded T's and blanks in the "taxable" column of the original invoice table with VLookUp formulas which look up whether an item is taxable. Make sure the formulas are correctly draggable.

      Then modify your old "roster" file to contain an additional table which converts percentage scores to letter grades. Add a column to the main roster table for the letter grade, and use the separate table, with VLookup, to compute each student's letter grade, based on the final numeric score.

      When you are finished, upload both your "invoice" file and your "roster" file to the appropriate place on Blackboard. They must have filenames like the following:

      last-first-invoice.xlsx
      last-first-roster.xlsx

      (replacing "last" and "first" with your own last and first name).

    2. Practice using file transfer (via WinSCP) and a command-line interface:

      3. Upload your HTML pages and graphics onto your website, as instructed in this week's tutorials on WinSCP. Practice using both the Windows Command Prompt and Unix, as instructed in this week's tutorials on the Windows Command Prompt and Unix.

    3. Blog:

      4. Log in to the blog you created last week on Wordpress.com. On your dashboard, in the left column, under "Settings, click "General." Give your blog a site title and a tag line. (One of these can be your name, if you so choose.) Make sure you click "Save Changes," then view your blog itself to see the changes.

      Then go back to your dashboard and click on "Appearance" in the left hand column. Find and activate a theme which either supports "Widgets" or supports all of the following: "Categories" (or "category list"), "tags" (either "tag list" or "tag cloud"), and "Links" ("links list" or "blogroll"). After you've activated the theme, if it supports "Widgets," go back to the "Appearance" page and select "Widgets." Then, on the "Widgets" page, give your blog "Categories" (or "category list"), "tags" (either "tag list" or "tag cloud"), and "Links" ("links list" or "blogroll"), if it does not already have these.

      "Categories" are a way of creating a table of contents for your blog, while "tags" are a way of creating an index. Having both of them on a side panel of your blog will make it easier for users to find posts on your blog. They will also improve your site's Google rankings, by providing relevant links to your blog posts.

      On your dashboard, click "Posts" in the left column. Then, below "Posts" in the left hand column, click "Categories." Add a new category "Wordpress" for your posts about Wordpress itself. Add at least one other category on any topic you choose, which will include the first post you made yesterday. A category name should usually consist of just one or two words.

      Then click "Posts" and edit all your posts to select at least one category (not including "Uncategorized") and give them at least three or four tags referring to sub-topics discussed in your post. Tag names, like category names, should each consist of just one or two words.

      When finished, view your blog. Your categories and tags should be listed on a panel separate from your posts. Your categories and tags for each post will also be listed beneath the post itself. When you click on a category or tag on the separate panel, it will take it to a page of your own posts with that category or tag. On the other hand, when you click on a category or tag beneath one of your posts, it will take you to a list of posts, not just by you but by all Wordpress.com users, with that category or tag.

      Let's now give your blog a links list or blogroll. On your dashboard, click "Links" in the left hand column. Add a link to the Queens College Computer Science Department home page. Add at least two other links to websites on topics of interest to you. Then view your blog and make sure your links work.

      When finished, copy and paste the URL of your blog (http://username.wordpress.com/ replacing "username" with your actual Wordpress username) into the "notes" area of the relevant page on Blackboard. (Do not submit a file.)

    4. Paper:

      5. Finish writing your paper. It should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

      The paper is due two weeks from now. The paper must have the following filename:

      • last-first-paper.docx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.


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    Assignment 10 (due Friday, November 18, 2011)

    1. Paper:

      2. Finish writing your paper. It should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, plus properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

      The paper is due next week. The paper must have the following filename:

      • last-first-paper.docx

      where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

    2. Access assignment:

      3. Following the instructions below, create a single-table database which will also have a form, a query, and a report.

      1. Creating a table in Access:

        2. Open Access. Click "Blank Database." By default, you will be shown a blank new table.

        First let's give the table an appropriate name. In the File menu, click "Save." In the "Save As" dialog box that pops up, change "Table1" to "Employees."

        Let's now create ("design") appropriate fields (columns) for this table. At the top of the main panel is a tab marked "Employees". Right click that tab and select "Design View." You'll now see a new table whose purpose is to define fields for the original table. To go back to the original table, click the "Employees" table again and select "Datasheet view." Then go back to "Design View" again, and toggle back and forth between the two views until you see how they relate to each other.

        Notice that one field has already been defined for us: A field named "ID," whose data type is "AutoNumber." Thi8s field will automatically generate unique ID's for all the employees in our table.

        In "Design View," let's now define the following additional fields:

        • A field named "Last name," of data type "Text"
        • A field named First name," also of data type "Text"
        • A field named "Date of birth," of data type "Date/Time"
        • A field named "Salary," of data type "Currency."

        For each field, type its name in the "Field Name" column of the "Design View" table, and select its data type from a drop down list.

        Then right-click the "Employees" tab at the top and select "Save." Then right-click the "Employees" tab again and select "Datasheet View."

        Now enter data for 10 employees. Make up their names, birth dates, and salaries. Note that the ID is automatically filled in for you. Choose birth dates such that about half the employees are over 30 years old and the other half are under 30. For both age ranges, choose salaries such that some are earning more than $50,000 (per year) and others are earning less than $50,000.

        Then right-click the "Employees" table and click "Save."

      2. Creating a form:

        3. Let's now create a form which will anable more data to be entered into the table in a more user-friendly fashion, one new employee at a time.

        At the top of the window, select "Create," Then click "form." At first, the form will display the data for your first employee. So that you can use it to enter data for new employees, click "New" at the top.

        The cursor will now be next to "(New)" in the ID field. Since that field is auto-generated, you can't put a value there yourself. So, just press Enter to move your cursor to "Last Name".

        Enter data for a few more employees.

        Then right-click the tab for the "Employees" table and select "Save". In the "Save As" dialog box, change the form's name to "Employee" (singular).

        Then click the "Employees" tab to bo back to the "Employees" table. At first, you won't see the new employees. Click "Refress All" a the top to make them appear.

      3. Creating a query:

        4. Let's now use our table to look up some information. Suppose we want a listing of all the employees over 30 years old who are earning at least $50,000. Given how short our table is, it's not too difficult to do this by hand. But, if we had a lot more employees, looking up this information by hand could be quite tedious. So, let's use a query to automate our search.

        At the top, click "Create," then select "Query Wizard." Select "simple query wizard" and click "OK."

        First, we are asked to select which fields will appear in our query result. Select all the fields. Then click "Next." Then select "Detail" and click "Next."

        In the next dialog bax, you are asked what name you want for the query, with default name "Emplyees query." Change the name to "Senior employees." Then select "Modify the Query Design" and click "Finish.".

        At the bottom, in the "Criteria" row, in the cell in the "Date of birth" column, enter "> " followed by a date 30 years ago. Also in the "Criteria" row, in the cell in the "Salary column, enter ">=" followed by the number 50000. (Do not use a dollar sign.)

        Then, at the top, click "Run" (with the red exlamation point icon). The quary results should then be generated. If you get an error message, see Examples of query criteria on the Microsoft site.

        Now save the query. Right click the "Senior employees" tab and click "Save."

      4. Creating a report:

        5. Let's now create a report to display our query results in a customizable fashion.

        At the top, click the "Create" tab, then select "Report." Then play around with various features to see how they change the appearance of your report.

        Then save your report.

      5. Saving your database:

        6. After you've saved all the individual objects in your database, save your database itself. In the "File" menu, select "Save Database As" and give your database a filename like the following:

        last-first-employees.accdb

        replacing "last" and "first" with your own last and first name.

    3. WinSCP/Unix assignment

      4. If you have not already done so, upload your HTML files to the Unix site for this course, as instructed in last week's tutorials on WinSCP. Make sure all your files are visible. (Among other things, you may need to change the permissions using the chmod command. Also, make sure all your links work.)

      Copy and paste the URL of your website into the "notes" area of the relevant page on Blackboard. (Do not submit a file.)


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    Assignment 11 (due Friday, December 2, 2011)

    1. Access assignment:

      2. In the previous Access exercise, we created a single-table database. Let's now create a multi-table database similar to the one described on the page about Relationships between Tables in Allen Browne's Access tutorial. The database will have three tables: "Students," "Subjects," and "Grades." Create them as follows:

      As before, begin by opening Access and selecting "Blank database." Then right click the "Table1" tab at the top of the main panel, and select "Save." In the "Save As" dialog box that pops up, change "Table1" to "Students." After saving the table, right-click the "Students" tab and select "Design View." Note that the table automatically has an "ID" field whose data type is "AutoNumber" (meaning it automatically assigns unique numbers). Leave this field alone, allowing it to automatically assign student ID's. Add three new fields for "last name," "first name," and "phone," all of data type "Text." Then save the design (by right-clicking the "Students" tab and clicking "Save") and then right-click the "Students" tab and select "Datasheet view," so you can enter data. Then enter data for five students. Then save the table (by right-clicking the "Students" tab and clicking "Save") and close it (by right-clicking the "Students" tab and clicking "Close")

      Then create the "Subjects" table. At the top, click "Create," then click "Table." Give the new table the name "Subjects" by saving it with that name. As before, make use of the automatically generated ID numbers, and add two new fields, one for "Subject," and one for "notes," both of data type "Text." Right-click on the "ID" field and select "Primary Key." In the datasheet view, add records for at least three of the subjects typically taught in elementary school, such as "reading," "math," and "science." (You may want to stretch out the width of the "Notes" column in the datasheet view.) When finished, save this table and close it.

      Then create the "Grades" table, which will have fields for "Student ID," "Subject ID," and "Grade," where "Student ID" and "Subject ID" will each be foreign keys referring to the other two tables. The "Grades" table will not have an auto-generated ID field of its own. We will get rid of this field as follows: In the design view (after you've saved the new table as "Grades"), right-click on the name of the "ID" field and select "Primary Key" so that is no longer the primary key. (See the key icon to the left of the name disappear.) Then right-click to the left of the field name and select "Delete Rows."

      Now create the "Student ID" field. Give it the name "Student ID" and then, for its data type, select "Lookup Wizard;"; then select "I want the lookup field to get the values from another table or query"; then click "Next"; then select "Tables: Students"; then select "ID," "Last name," and "First name"; then click "Next"; then select a sort order by (1) last name and (2) first name, both in ascending order; then click "Next"; then shrink the column widths to be as narrow as possible and still be readable; then click "Next"; then select "ID" as the field that uniquely identifies the row; then check "Enable data integrity"; then click "Finish"; then click "Yes" to save the table.

      Similarly, create a field with the name "Subject ID" and then, for its data type, select "Lookup Wizard;"; then select "I want the lookup field to get the values from another table or query"; then click "Next"; then select "Tables: Subjects"; then select "ID" and "Subject," then click "Next"; then select a sort order by "Subject" in ascending order; then click "Next"; then shrink the column widths to be as narrow as possible and still be readable; then click "Next"; then select "ID" as the field that uniquely identifies the row; then check "Enable data integrity"; then click "Finish"; then click "Yes" to save the table.

      Then give the "Grades" table a third field, of type "Text."

      Note that each record of the "Grades" table will be uniquely identified not by any one field but by a combination of the two fields "Student ID" and "Subject ID." Therefore, let's make the combination of these two fields the primary key as follows: Highlight the two boxes to the left of the names of these fields. (Highlight one of these boxes, then use the up or down arrow key to highlight the other one too.) Then right-click and select "Primary Key."

      Then save the "Grades" table and move to the data sheet view. As you enter grades, notice how the "Student ID" and "Subject ID" columns allow you to select only those students and subjects that are already in the other tables. Also, see what happens if you try to enter two separate grades for the same combination of student and subject. (It should not allow you to do this.) After you've entered a grade for each possible combination of student and subject, save the table.

      Then save the entire database, with a filename like the following:

      last-first-elementary.accdb

      replacing "last" and "first" with your own actual last and first name.


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    Assignment 12 (due Friday, December 9, 2011)

    1. Microsoft Word assignment:

      2. Experiment with Mail Merge. Use it to create a quasi-personalized form letter. You will not be asked to submit this via BlackBoard, but you must be prepared to answer basic, general questions about it on a quiz and/or on the final exam.


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D. Nixon: CS 12 > Assignments