“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

Course Description:  AP Computer Science Principles is designed to be the equivalent of a first semester introductory college or university computer science course. AP Computer Science Principles offers a multidisciplinary approach to teaching the underlying principles of computation. The course will introduce students to the creative aspects of programming, abstractions, algorithms, large data sets, the Internet, cybersecurity concerns, and computing impacts. AP Computer Science Principles will give students the opportunity to use technology to address real-world problems and build relevant solutions. Together, these aspects of the course make up a rigorous and rich curriculum that aims to broaden participation in computer science. This course is designed to center around the following Computational Thinking Practices and Big Ideas:

Computational Thinking Practices

• Connecting computing
• Creating computational artifacts
• Abstracting
• Analyzing problems and artifacts
• Communicating
• Collaborating 

Big Ideas

• Creativity
• Abstraction
• Data and Information
• Algorithms
• Programming
• The Internet
• Global Impact 
  
  

Goals of AP Computer Science Principles: Students should be able to

• Collaborate and communicate effectively in a project based environment;
• Design, implement, and analyze solutions to problems;
• Understand the ethical and social implications of computer use;
• Understand the broad impact of computer science on today’s society;
• Apply structural disciplines appropriate to computational problem solving, such as decomposition into subparts and iteration;
• Think abstractly about problems, and how problems are solved by development of appropriate abstractions;
• Understand ways of creating computational solutions to problems relevant to a variety of disciplines;
• Understand views of information and data, how these are structured in the computer, and how they are manipulated to achieve desired ends;
• Examine and create algorithms that can be executed by a computer using programming languages;
• Understand the influence of the internet and the systems built on it;
• Use models, simulation, and abstraction to generate new understanding and knowledge.
  
  

 My Personal Goals: Here are a few things I want us to achieve this year.

• Have a solid foundational knowledge of computer science to apply computer science to your individualized and eventual career paths;
• Be prepared to continue on in computer programming experiences in the future;
• To attain a top score on the AP exam;
• Share our experiences, knowledge, and interest with the rest of Ardsley.