INTRO TO COMPUTER SCIENCE ESSENTIALS

Grades 9-12

Credit: .5 unit
PREREQUISITE: None

Note: Also offered through R-7 Online Academy

In this introductory course designed for students new to computer science, students learn how to help people and make the world a better place using the skills, tools, and thinking of creative computing. Students will learn how to code by learning to create apps and games for phones and mobile devices using a beginner-friendly, visual, block-based coding environment called MIT App Inventor. Next students learn more advanced programming concepts to program Self Driving Vehicles to autonomously navigate maps, while using a beginner-friendly Vex block-based programming language. As students gain understanding and confidence with coding in the graphical environment, students will apply their new coding knowledge to learn the power of text-based code. Students will design and create applications using the text-based programming language Python. Finally, students will also learn how to make computers work together to realize their designs. This entry-level course exposes students to a diverse set of computational thinking concepts, fundamentals, and tools and provides a strong foundation to advance to PLTW AP Computer Science, AP Computer Science A and beyond.