Syllabus

 

Sure, you know a million apps … do you know any computer science?

Computer Science is the study of computation built on fascinating (and beautiful!) principles. Computer science concepts apply in many fields: graphics, art & design, math, knowledge representation, engineering, biology, markets, and many more. Use the power of computing in your career!

 

SYLLABUS                                     

Week 1, April 3 - 7 

• Reading: a bit of computer history in Wikipedia (optional)
• Topic: Big Ideas in Computer Science
• Snap: Introduction (Kaleidoscope)
• HW: Hour of Code 

  

Week 2: April 10-14

• Topic: Overview - It's all just bits, good or evil? (ch. 1 BTB)
• Snap: Loops and Building Your Own Blocks (Field of Flowers)
• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 1
• Discussion of Logic Gates

 

Week 3: April 17-21

• Topic: Representing Data (continuation)
• Snap: Conditionals and Variables (Number guessing game)
• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 2
• Logic gates practice: Basic Gates and Functions

 

Week 4: April 24 - 28

• Topic: AI, HCI, and Robots.
• Snap: Abstraction and Testing (Brick Wall)
• Reading: Why the future doesn't need us, Rise of Concerns about AI
• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 3

 

Week 5: May 1 - 5

• Midterm review
• Snap: Multiple Sprites (game or story)
• Midterm on Thursday May 4 at 9:50am

 

Week 6: May 8 - 12

• Topic: The Internet and the Web, Networks
• Snap: Lists (Sentences or Higher Order Functions)
• Reading: Chapter 4 Blown to Bits
• OSI Model, History of the Internet, Warriors of the Internet 

 

Week 7: May 15 - 19

• Topic: Cryptography
• Discussion of ch. 4 BTB
• Snap: Recursion and Fractals 
• Reading: Chapter 5 Blown to Bits

 

Week 8: May 22 - 26

• Topic: Data Representation, Logic, Huffman Coding, Binary Numbers
• Snap: Start on final project
• Reading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffman_coding (required is just through the section "Terminology"),
  www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Projects/CAL/digital-logic/gatesfunc/index.html (through the link "Problem")
  Optional further reading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate (through the section on "Data Storage")
• Discussion of HTML, CSS, JavaScript

 

Week 9: May 29 - June 2 (Monday is a Holiday)

• Topic: Sorting and Complexity
• Snap: None - homework handout on Data Representation, Logic, Huffman Coding, Binary Numbers

 

Week 10: June 5 - 9

• Reading: https://processing.org/tutorials/overview/
• Topic: 2D Animations with Processing and Java
• Snap: Final Project Due Friday

 

Final Schedule

• Tuesday June 13 @ 4pm - 7pm (normal class room)