Computer programming Teacher Resources

An introduction to strategies for implementing programming for a particle system. The focus is to keep track of a system of many elements. A sequence of the movie, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is used to illustrate particle system which...

Using more advanced-object oriented programming techniques like inheritance to make different types of particle sub-objects, that share the same functionality but differs in key ways.

Phillip Guo is a computer science researcher and teacher specializing in human-computer interaction and educational technology. This article discusses how he became interested in his profession and what his job entails.

A review of programming with JavaScript and ProcessingJS, and guidance of what to learn next.

This article on Khan Academy is about air and fluid resistance that is caused by friction.

A description of "the Perlin noise" and how to generate its various natural effects.

The application of trigonometry concepts to calculate complex forces of angular velocity and acceleration is illustrated.

Two dimensional noise in JavaScript is explained.

Understanding how to calculate the length (also known as magnitude) of a vector. Normalizing a vector is also examined.

A comprehensive list of the mathematical operations available as functions in the PVector object from Processing JS. Vector Subtraction and Vector multiplication are closely examined.

A function that will generate random numbers but prefer higher numbers, the Monte Carlo Method is explaine.

Using the random function with probability and non-uniform distributions in code.

Using the Random object in JavaScript, a normal distribution of random numbers is created.

Creating arrays of numbers that describe shapes in 3D shape--arrays that describe nodes and edges.

Components of drawing a 3D shape are explained: setting things up, drawing nodes, and drawing edges.

Creating a cuboid with specific position and dimensions entails a function that maps a position and dimensions into an array of nodes and an array of edges.

Rotating 3D shapes is explained.

Create animated scenes.

Adding a button to navigate a scene for additional interaction.

Creating scenes that respond to user interaction by a trial and error approach to the best function solution.

Creating multiple simple scene changes.

Creating multiple transformations using translation, rotation, and scaling and understanding how order makes a difference. PushMatrix, popMatrix, and resetMatrix are explained.

An explanation of the rotation function using angular measurement.

The final coordinate system transformation is scaling which changes the size of the grid is examined.