Learning Objectives

The top-level items are the learning objectives from the syllabus that should have been accomplished by mid-semester.

1. Define the field of informatics and describe several of its areas of application.

   Reference: Informatics Program and Cognates; Paper 1: Applications of Informatics

   1. How is informatics like and unlike computer science?
   2. Describe three areas of the application of informatics.

2. Develop problem solving strategies and skills that can be applied to information and to problems in other areas.

   Reference: Chapter 6, “Debugging”; Debugging notes

   1. Name and describe the 5 phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
   2. Explain why testing does not guarantee that software is correct.

3. Analyze numerical data using spreadsheets.

   Reference: Chapters 13–14; Spreadsheets 1; Spreadsheets 2

   1. Describe how data are organized in a spreadsheet
   2. Address (refer to) cells and cell ranges
   3. Distinguish between absolute and relative cell addresses
   4. Use formulas
   5. Use and discuss functions; know the term “argument”
   6. Use conditional formulas

4. Design, develop, and use a database.

   Reference: Chapter 15; Comments; QBE Notes; Databases I; Databases II; Databases III; XML

   1. Describe advantages of a database management system (DBMS) compared to a file-based data collection (such as a spreadsheet or XML file).
   2. Use the table operations select, project, product, and join.
   3. Distinguish between XML and HTML
   4. Describe the motivations for XML
   5. Compare the tree-structured data model of XML with the tabular model of relational databases

5. Describe digital representations of information; interpret common digital representations.

   Reference: Chapters 7–8; Representing Information

   1. Define the terms bit, byte, octet, binary, hexadecimal, ASCII, Unicode, pixel, subpixel, lossy and lossless compression.
   2. Determine the number of symbols that can be represented with N bits.
   3. Convert hexadecimal to binary and vice-versa
   4. Express decimal numbers (0, 1, 2, …) in binary; interpret their binary representations
   5. Add small binary numbers.
   6. Convert English text to ASCII and vice-versa (with the aid of a table).
   7. Describe the RGB representation of colors.
   8. Apply the Nyquist rule to determine the sampling rate needed to digitize sound up to a given frequency.
   9. Given the width and height of an image, determine the uncompressed storage size in bytes.
   10. Classify PNG, GIF, and JPEG as lossy or lossless.

6. Describe how computers work internally.

   Reference: Chapter 9; Computer Operations

   1. Name and describe the function of the principal parts of a computer (processor, control, ALU, registers; memory, input and output devices).
   2. State Moore’s law; describe its impact on the capabilities of computers over the years.
   3. Distinguish between machine language, assembly language, and higher-level programming languages;

7. Design and code basic HTML (web) pages.

   Reference: Chapter 4; HTML and Markup

   1. Define markup and hypertext terms, including tag, element, attribute
   2. Use tags to structure an HTML document
   3. Use attributes in HTML tags, including the required attributes
   4. Use HTML a elements to link to other URLs
   5. Distinguish between absolute and relative paths or URLs
   6. Create an HTML document with headings, paragraphs, links to other pages, images, lists, and tables.

Sample Questions

1. “I hear you’re majoring in Informatics. What’s that?” Give an answer suitable for an elevator ride, pointing out the similarities and differences between Informatics and Computer Science.
2. Write the absolute address for a spreadsheet cell in column C, row 12.
3. How many spreadsheet cells are added up to form the total by the formula =SUM(A5:D8)?
4. Given the tables shown below, what is the result of project description, price from wares?
5. Given the tables shown below, what is the result of select price  <  50.00 from wares?
6. Given the tables shown below, what is the result of wares join purchases on wares.item = purchases.item?
7. A table in a database is called _____.
   (a) attribute, (b) field, (c) relation, (d) tuple.
8. How many distinct symbols can be represented with 10 bits?
9. The color represented in RGB notation as #FFAA77 is _____.
   (a) mostly red, (b) mostly blue, (c) entirely red, (d) entirely green.
10. Binary 1011 represents what decimal number?
11. According to Moore’s law, the _____ doubles every 24 months.
12. ADD R1, R2, R3 is an example of an instruction or statement in _____.
    (a) machine language, (b) assembly language, (c) a higher-level programming language, (d) XML.
13. Write the tag that marks the beginning of an HTML paragraph.
14. Write the HTML tag that ends an element if the element begins with <tr>.
15. Write an HTML ordered list with two colors of your choice as list items.

Table Data

Wares Table

Purchases Table