Mullumbimby High School

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Software design and development

Contact Person Adam Culbert
Units 2 Units for each of the Preliminary and HSC courses
Category A
Exclusions Nil
Type Board Developed Course
Description

The Preliminary course introduces students to the basic concepts of computer software design and development. It does this by looking at the different ways in which software can be developed, the tools that can be used to assist in this process and by considering the interaction between software and the other components of the computer system.

The HSC course builds on the Preliminary course and involves the development and documentation of software using a variety of data structures and language facilities. Students learn to solve a number of interesting and relevant software problems.

Students interested in the fields of software development and computer science will find this subject of value. In addition to this, it is a great career choice as jobs continue to move more and more into the information age.

Most concepts are learned through practical projects which are shown in the course outline below in red.
Structure

Preliminary Course

  • Concepts and Issues in the Design and Development of Software (30%)
    • Social and ethical issues
    • Hardware and software
    • Software development approaches
  • Introduction to Software Development (50%)
    • Defining and understanding the problem
    • Planning and designing software solutions
    • Implementing software solutions
    • Testing and evaluating software solutions
    • Maintaining software solutions
  • Developing software solutions (20%)

HSC Course

  • Development and Impact of Software Solutions (15%)
    • Social and ethical issues
    • Application of software development approaches
  • Software Development Cycle (40%)
    • Defining and understanding the problem
    • Planning and design of software solutions
    • Implementing software solutions
    • Testing and evaluating software solutions
    • Maintaining software solutions
  • Developing a Solution Package (25%)
  • Options (20%) - study one of the following options:
    • Programming paradigms OR
    • The interrelationship between software and hardware

Course Outline

Course Outline

Project Work:

Students work on a number of projects in both year 11 and 12 including:

Unit Converter

Design a converter for the units of data used in computing

Unit Converter

Tax Calculator

Create a program to calculate tax / net income for the ATO

Tax Calculator

Mortgage Calculator

Design a mortgage calculator for the Commonwealth Bank

Mortgage Calculator

Self-Serve Menu

Design a self serve menu app for a local Cafe or Restaurant

Self-Serve Menu

Multiplication Game (Year 11 Assessment Task)

The aim of this project is to create a 'fun and engaging' times tables practice tool for children. Most students elect to create the game using Unity and learn about the fundamentals of game development as they create this project.

Multiplication Game
Multiplication Game

Group Project (Year 11 Assessment Task)

Students work in groups of 2-3 to plan and implement a project of their choice. The goal of this project is to work through the software development cycle as the group produces a project of their own design.

Group Project
Group Project

Mini Projects (Year 12 Assessment Task)

As part of a larger assessment task in Year 12, students also work a range of smaller projects such as card shuffling, morse code converter, substitution cipher, distance converter, temperature converter, magic 8 ball, scissors-paper-rock, hangman, dice roller and the '99 bottles of beer on the wall' lyrics generator.

Mini Projects
Mini Projects

Individual Project Year 12 Assessment Task)

Students work on an individual major project in year 12 which is a project of their own choice. There has been a lot of variety in the projects in the past from interactive websites, information kiosks and point of sale apps through to meme generators, car customisers and games.

Individual Project
Individual Project
Individual Project
Individual Project

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