Length: yearlong

Period 3: http://studio.code.org/join/LSJZPJ

AP^® Computer Science Principles

Code.org’s Computer Science Principles (CSP) curriculum is a full year, rigorous, entry level course that introduces high school students to the foundations of modern computing. The course covers a broad range of foundational topics such as programming, algorithms, the Internet, big data, digital privacy and security, and the societal impacts of computing.

Course Snapshot

The course contains five core units of study, with a sixth unit devoted almost exclusively to students working on their AP Performance Task (PT) projects. Each unit has one or two “chapters” of related lessons that usually conclude with some kind of project or summative assessment. A time line showing a typical school year is shown to give a rough estimate of pacing. Note: the performance task submission deadline is the end of April, and the written AP Exam is May 5, 2017.

AP Endorsed

Code.org is recognized by the College Board as an endorsed provider of curriculum and professional development for AP® Computer Science Principles (AP CSP). This endorsement affirms that all components of Code.org CSP’s offerings are aligned to the AP Curriculum Framework standards and the AP CSP assessment. Using an endorsed provider affords schools access to resources including an AP CSP syllabus preapproved by the College Board’s AP Course Audit, and officially recognized professional development that prepares teachers to teach AP CSP.

Curriculum Overview and Goals

Computing affects almost all aspects of modern life and all students deserve a computing education that prepares them to pursue the wide array of intellectual and career opportunities that computing has made possible.

This course is not a tour of current events and technologies. Rather, this course seeks to provide students with a “future proof” foundation in computing principles so that they are adequately prepared with both the knowledge and skills to live and meaningfully participate in our increasingly digital society, economy, and culture.

The Internet and Innovation provide a narrative arc for the course, a thread connecting all of the units. The course starts with learning about what is involved in sending a single bit of information from one place to another and ends with students considering the implications of a computing innovation of their own design. Along the way students learn:

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  How the Internet works and its impacts on society.
  
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  How to program and rapidly prototype small JavaScript applications both to solve problems and to satisfy personal curiosity.
  
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  How to collect, analyze and visualize data to gain insight and knowledge.
  
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  How to evaluate the beneficial and harmful effects to people and society brought on by computing innovations.
  

A central goal of Code.org’s CSP curriculum is for it to be accessible to all students, especially those in groups typically underrepresented in computing. To this end, we have worked to provide examples and activities that are relevant and topical enough for students to connect back to their own interests and lives. Wherever possible, and especially in the videos that accompany the curriculum, we seek to highlight a diverse and impressive array of role models in terms of gender, race, and profession from which students can draw inspiration and “see themselves” participating in computing.

There are no formal prerequisites for this course, though the College Board recommends that students have taken at least Algebra 1. The course requires a significant amount of expository writing (as well as writing computer code, of course). For students wishing to complete the requirements of the AP Exam and Performance Tasks, we recommend they be in 10th grade or above due the expectations of student responsibility and maturity for an AP course.

The AP Assessment consists of a 74 question multiple choice exam and two “through course” assessments called the AP Performance Tasks (PTs). The tasks can be found in the official AP CS Principles Exam and Course Description.

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  Create Performance Task (p. 108)
  
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  Explore Performance Task (p. 111)
  

Assessments in the Curriculum

The course provides a number of assessment types and opportunities. For students, the goal of the assessments is to prepare them for the AP exam and performance tasks. For teachers, the goal is to use assessments to help guide instruction, give feedback to students, and make choices about what to emphasize in lessons.


Summative Assessments: (70%)

The curriculum contains two types of summative assessments that teachers may elect to use. They are intended to mimic the AP assessments though in more bite sized chunks.

After a group of concepts has been adequately covered typically this means every 58 lessons (roughly every few weeks) a fixed response assessment with items such as multiple choice, matching, choose two, short answer, etc. appears in the curriculum.

Each unit contains at least one project designed in the spirit of the Advanced Placement Performance Tasks (PTs). These Practice PTs are smaller in scope, contextualized to the unit of study and are intended to help prepare students to engage in the official administration of the AP PTs at the end of the course.

The curriculum contains rubrics for assessing certain kinds of student work:

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  Written and project work
  
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  Practice PTs
  
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  Programming projects
  
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  Student presentations
  

The curriculum provides teachers many opportunities for formative assessment (such as checks for understanding). These include, but are not limited to:

All lesson materials can be accessed by students on a single platform called Code Studio. In addition to housing lesson descriptions, instructional materials, and programming exercises in App Lab, Code Studio includes features that assist the teacher in completing formative assessment including:

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  Multiple choice or matching questions related to questions on the chapter summative assessment.
  
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  Free response text fields where students may input their answer.
  
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  AccesstostudentworkwithintheAppLabprogrammingenvironmentandotherdigital tools and widgets used in the curriculum.
  
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  The ability for students to submit final versions of App Lab projects
  

● Many lessons contain worksheets or activity guides that ask students to write, answer questions, and respond to prompts (Answer keys provided) that could be used as formative assessment

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  Know and follow school/district rules
  
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  Be respectful of other students and staff
  
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  Be respectful of equipment and property
  
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  No food or drink is allowed in class
  
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  No ELECTRONIC DEVICES DURING CLASS TIME
  
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  No games (except for the projects that you code)
  
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  Be personally responsible for your actions
  
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  Do your best work and use class time as directed by your teacher
  
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  Seated and ready to begin when the bell rings
  
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  Use of computers limited to completing school work.
  
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  Remain seated at your desk until dismissed from class
  

Jackson H. S. and Everett School District policies with regard to attendance will be followed strictly. Students will receive no credit for any graded activity that occurs on a day that they have an unexcused absence.

A student may be dismissed from class for personal reasons for up to five minutes by receiving permission from the instructor and using the hall pass provided. It is NOT expected that a student will need to leave the class the same time each day or be gone in excess of 5 minutes; if there are health issues please notify me with a parent phone call. Excessive use of passes will not occur, you will be denied a pass until a parent conference is arranged.

Students in all CTE (Career & Technical Education) classes will cover safety issues related to class and industry related for the class. Students will not be able to use school equipment until safety issues are addressed and understood by students. If there is an accident, please contact the instructor immediately. Theft or destruction of the equipment and or abuse of the equipment will not be tolerated and will be grounds for removal from class and the student will be responsible for the replacement value of the equipment.

Every assignment needs to be the sole, honest work of the individual. Collaborative work is a verbal discussion, a rough sketch that is shared, or shared pseudo code. Share your ideas but do your own work.

1. 
   IDENTICAL CODE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED - ALL VARIABLE NAMES MUST BE UNIQUE
   
2. 
   CODE MAY NOT BE PLACED ON A SHARED SERVER
   
3. 
   USING NOTES DURING AN EXAM
   
4. 
   ACCESSING ANOTHER STUDENTS ACCOUNT/ DATA
   
5. 
   USING CODE FROM ANY SOURCE (friend, web)
   

All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your instructors (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures). Within the constraints of "fair use," you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in support of your education here in the UW. Such fair use by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues. As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, life styles and their political and social affiliations. If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in the university community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Knowing violations of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may result in disciplinary action.

Accessibility

Required academic accommodations will be granted provided they are listed in the student’s IEP or 504 plan.

Please sign, date, and return to indicate understanding and consent. Call immediately if unclear or concerned regarding any issue addressed in this syllabus.

I will be updating grades on-line approximately every two weeks. Your student and/or you can register for access to this information. You can even request a progress report to be emailed to you every Friday.

I will monitor my student’s grades myself on-line at the Everett School District IMS web site by registering at https://ims.everett.k12.wa.us