Career Technical Education
Page Navigation
- Granite Bay High School
- CTE Course Catalog
AP COMPUTER SCIENCE PRINCIPLES
Course ID: 356175
Open to grades: 10 - 12
UC/CSU eligibility: This course is approved for “G” elective credit
Prerequisites: CCIM2, or instructor approval (see description)
In a hands-on, project-based learning environment, students in AP Computer Science Principles will explore the seven big ideas of computing: creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact of technology. Students will follow UC Berkeley’s engaging curriculum, Beauty and Joy of Computing. This course teaches programming through an engaging programming language called SNAP!, one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It’s purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around to build code instead of writing lengthy syntax-intensive programs. Students will then apply these skills to develop Apps through MIT’s App Inventor, program, 3 different types of robots, and explore the programming language Python. But this course is far more than just learning programming concepts. We focus on some of the “Big Ideas” of computing, such as abstraction, design, recursion, concurrency, simulations, and the limits of computation. We show some beautiful applications of computing that have changed the world, talk about the history of computing, and where it will go in the future. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be well-prepared to take College Board’s other AP course in computer science: AP Computer Science A (Java).
CTE Department Recommendation: Grade of B or better in Exploring Computer Science