App Lab: A Powerful JavaScript IDE for Rapid Prototyping of Small Data-backed Web Applications (Abstract Only)

Abstract

App Lab (https://code.org/applab) is Code.org's rapid-prototyping environment for creating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript-powered web applications. It was created as part of a rich set of instructional resources designed for teachers of the new AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course. Yet, App Lab far exceeds the needs of CSP, and would be an appropriate learning environment for students in any CS0/CS1 class, even at the university level. App Lab gives novice programmers access to capabilities previously reserved for courses that require sophisticated tech setup and knowledge of both front and backend web development, server-side scripting, databases, etc. This demonstration aims to give a brief overview of App Lab and its purpose and then move quickly into demonstrating the more advanced features of App Lab that few people know are even there! The audience should come away with knowledge and access to exemplars that highlight App lab's possibilities, and see some of its richer features in action. Finally we will end with a discussion about how best to integrate App Lab into existing courses. App Lab was developed as part of collaboration between Code.org and David Bau (Google), creator of PencilCode.net.