3.1. Unit Overview

This unit extends your mobile programming toolkit to several new MIT App Inventor components and introduces a number of new programming concepts, including the concepts of variables, list and data abstraction. The main app in this unit, The Paint Pot app, a computational model of finger painting, focuses on MIT App Inventor's drawing and painting features and related topics from the CS Principles framework. The app is presented in three parts each of which is followed by a set of creative project exercises and challenges. This unit also introduces two other apps: Map Tour app, which provides a first introduction to lists, and Map Tour with TinyDB, which demonstrates how to incorporate external data and location into a mobile app. You will also further your understanding of the binary number system and be introduced to the idea of a bit as the fundamental unit of data. Through a number of hands-on and interactive activities, you will explore how bits are used to represent images and how redundant parity bits can be used to detect simple data transmission errors. These lessons are complemented by an Impact of CS reading and activity.

Technical Terms

Below is a table of all of the technical terms that you'll learn in this unit. You will find a vocabulary section similar to this at the end of each lesson. Hover over the terms to review the definitions. You'll be able to practice your knowledge of the vocabulary with a quizlet at the end of the unit.

MIT App Inventor
assignment	concatenation	index
list	operator	string
substring	variable

Computer Science Principles
algorithm	API	bit
byte	computer bug	cryptography
data abstraction	data type	debugging
expression	lossless compression	lossy compression
pixel	pseudocode	run length encoding

General Computing
ADT	analog	ASCII
bitmap	cloud computing	digital signal processing
digital	download	even parity
GPS	megabyte	megapixel
modeling	OCR	odd parity
parity bit	parity	raster
render	sampling	spam
steganography	upload

3.1.1. Self-Check

Q-1: Identify 1-2 vocabulary terms from the table above that you know and define them in your own words. If you don’t know any of these words yet, that’s ok! Instead, write 1-2 sentences on how you plan to practice learning the vocabulary for this unit.

Q-2: Identify 1-2 vocabulary terms from the table above that you have heard before but don’t know the definition for.

Q-3: Identify 1-2 vocabulary terms from the table above that you don’t know but want to learn in this unit.

3.1.2. Reflection: For Your Portfolio

Answer the following portfolio reflection questions as directed by your instructor. Questions are also available in this Google Doc - you will be prompted to make your own editable copy.