Download AP Computer Science Principles

AP Computer Science Principles
Piscataway High School
Teacher:
Ms. Your Name
Email:
Nameyourname@pway.org
Course Title: AP Computer Science Principles
Textbook:
UTeach CS Principles
Course Overview
Full year course: 5.0 credits
Prerequisite: Algebra 2 or Introduction to Computer Science
Description: AP Computer Science Principles introduces students to the foundational concepts of
computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the
world. With a unique focus on creative problem solving and real-world application, AP
Computer Science Principles prepares students for college and careers in a variety of fields.
The course aligns with the 7 Big Ideas and 6 Computational Thinking Practices as laid out by the
College Board for AP Computer Science Principles. Students will be given adequate in-class
time to complete the two tasks that make up the AP Through-Course Assessment, and gain the
essential knowledge and understanding necessary to succeed on the AP End-of-Course Exam.
The AP CS Principles course is structured as follows:
Unit
Topic
Length
Unit 1
Computational Thinking
13 Days
Unit 2
Programming
15 Days
Unit 3
Data Representation
12 Days
Unit 4
Digital Media Processing
15 Days
Unit 5
Big Data
13 Days
Unit 6
Innovative Technologies
12 Days
Unit 7
AP - Performance Tasks
20 Days
Unit 8
Artificial Intelligence
20 Days
Scope and Sequence – First Semester
Unit
Timing
Unit 1
13 days
Topic
Concepts and Skills
(1 day = 1 hour)
Assessment & Project for Unit 1 completed by the end of Cycle 3
 Algorithmic Thinking
Computational Thinking
Big Ideas:
Abstraction [2]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
The Internet [6]
Global Impact [7]
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Unit 2
15 days
o Examine strategies for approaching large-scale problems
o Identify and examine a number of common features of algorithms,
including sequencing, selection, and repetition
o Explore the benefits and applications of employing a top-down or a bottomup approach to problem solving
Cryptography & Cybersecurity
o Identify the needs and applications of cryptography in our digital world
o Analyze the differences between symmetric (single-key) encryption and
asymmetric (public key) encryption
o Encode and decode messages using common cryptographic techniques
o Examine a number of common threats to cybersecurity, including
distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), phishing, viruses, and social
engineering
o Analyze the function and effectiveness of common cybersecurity solutions,
including antivirus software and firewalls
Programming Languages
o Examine the need for clarity and precision in communicating an
algorithmic solution to a problem
o Analyze the need for artificial programming languages
Solvability & Performance
o Examine the factors that affect the decidability of a problem
o Examine methods of comparing equivalent algorithms for relative
efficiency
o Identify factors that allow solutions to scale efficiently
Unit Project – Password Generator Algorithm
Assessment & Project for Unit 2 completed by the end of Cycle 6
 Visual Programming – Scratch, programming with blocks, and remixing
Programming
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
Global Impact [7]
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projects
o Utilize a graphical editor to read, construct, and execute dynamic programs
o Examine, modify, and execute programs developed by others
o Share and collaborate on their own programs
Program State – User input and variables
o Examine how the dynamic state of an object or program can be stored and
changed using variables
Selection Statements – conditional “if…else” statements, boolean logic
o Analyze the differences between simple selection and complex, nested
selection statements
o Examine the use of the Boolean operators "AND", "OR", and "NOT" in
constructing complex conditional statements
Repetition – “Repeat” & “repeat until” loops, loops and variables
o Design and construct instructions using a non-traditional, domain-specific
notation
Unit Project – Scratch Programming Project
Unit
Timing
Unit 3
12 days
Topic
Concepts and Skills
(1 day = 1 hour)
Assessment & Project for Unit 3 completed by the end of Cycle 8
 Binary Encoding of Information
Data Representation
Big Ideas:
Abstraction [2]
Data and Information [3]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
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Unit 4
15 days
o Examine how numerical values are represented using different bases,
including decimal and binary
o Examine the exponential relationship between the number of digits and
their range of representable values
o Examine how alphanumeric characters and symbols may be represented
using ASCII and Unicode character mappings
Digital Approximations – Digitalization, analog v. digital data, perfect copies
o Explore ways in which natural phenomena may be represented digitally
o Analyze the differences between discrete (digital) and continuous (analog)
representations of natural phenomena
Global Impact – Legality of reselling digital music
o Examine the social implications of the ease with which perfect digital
copies can be made
Lists – Making, processing, and sorting a list
o Examine the use of lists as ordered data structures that may contain multiple
values
o Investigate the use of index values to represent positions of items in a list
o Investigate common operations for processing elements of a list, including
searching for an element, removing an element, swapping the positions of
two elements, or sorting an entire list into ascending or descending order
Unit Project – Unintend’o Controller
Assessment & Project for Unit 4 completed by the end of Cycle 11
Digital Media Processing
 Procedural Programming – Introduction to Processing: drawing, mouse
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Abstraction [2]
Data and Information [3]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
Global Impact [7]
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interaction, keyboard interaction
o Compare and contrast the programming capabilities of a visual
programming language (Scratch) with those of a text-based programming
language (Processing)
o Write programs that make use of parameterized methods to invoke specific
behaviors
o Write code using common programming constructs like conditional if() for
selection and while() loops for iteration and use event handlers to animate
on-screen effects and respond to mouse and keyboard input
Global Impact – Ethics of digital manipulation, intellectual property rights
o Explore the positive and negative consequences of digitally altering images
o Discuss the ethics of digitally manipulating images, especially in the
context of journalism and issues related to intellectual property
o Explore the limitations and rights associated with a number of common
licenses, including Creative Commons
Image Manipulation – RGB Color, raster images, raster image manipulation,
encoding schemes, manipulating digital images
o Examine the structure of raster images as compositions of individual pixels
o Explore various methods of representing color, including RGB, CMYK,
and HSV
o Modify the color channels of pixels in an image to produce various effects
o Explore the difference between lossy and lossless encoding schemes of
several common image file formats
Audio Manipulation – Digital audio, audio processing, audio compression
o Analyze the differences between analog and digital sound
o Explore methods of programmatically altering and modifying digital audio
by adjusting volume, pitch, and sampling rate
o Explore the methods and effects of compression algorithms in reducing the
amount of data needed to represent an audio sample
Unit Project – Image Filter Project
Unit
Timing
Unit 5
13 days
Topic
Concepts and Skills
(1 day = 1 hour)
Assessment & Project for Unit 5 completed by the end of Cycle 14
 Data Science – Introduction to big data, usability and usefulness of data, data
Big Data
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Abstraction [2]
Data and Information [3]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
Global Impact [7]
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visualization
o Relate the impact of computing to ubiquitous and large-scale data
processing
o Discuss the risks and benefits of drawing conclusions from patterns found
in large data sets
o Identify the characteristics that differentiate usable data from unusable data
and useful data from useless data
Data Aggregation – Collection, extraction, storage
o Explore the purposes of various processing tasks, including collection,
knowledge extraction, and data storage
o Identify multiple techniques for data collection, both on and off of the
Internet
o Extract structured information from unstructured data
o Examine methods of extracting information from online sources, including
structured and unstructured search engines, screen scrapers, and spiders
Data Analysis – Statistical analysis, data mining, clustering and classification
o Analyze the tradeoff of utility and confidence in descriptive, predictive, and
prescriptive data analysis
o Investigate the use of data mining in the discovery of patterns in large data
sets
o Examine the use of cluster analysis and data classification in the processing
of large data sets
Global Impact – Crowdsourcing
o Examine the security risks and responsibilities assumed by companies that
collect and store sensitive personal data
o Apply the technique of crowdsourcing to a novel data collection problem
Unit Project – TEDxKinda Presentation
Scope and Sequence – Second Semester
Unit
Timing
Unit 6
12 days
Approximate time frame
Concepts and Skills
(1 day = 1 hour)
Assessment & Project for Unit 6 completed by the end of Cycle 16
Innovative Technologies
 Everyday Computing – Social networking and communication; search, wikis,
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Programming [5]
The Internet [6]
Global Impact [7]
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Unit 7
20 days
Unit Project – Future Technology Project
AP Performance Tasks for Unit 7 to be completed and submitted by April 30
 Explore – Impact of Computing Innovations
AP Performance Tasks
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Abstraction [2]
Data and Information [3]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
Global Impact [7]
Unit 8
20 days
commerce, and news; cloud computing; the digital divide
o Analyze the role that digital technology plays in their everyday lives, social
communications, and interactions
o Explore the impact that instant access to global search, news, and
information has had on individuals and communities
o Analyze the benefits and risks of cloud computing
o Investigate the socioeconomic causes and effects related to the digital
divide
The Internet – Network infrastructure, communication protocols, World Wide
Web
o Examine the overall design and architecture of the Internet, including the
role of servers, routers, gateways, and clients
o Examine a number of standard network protocols, including IP, TCP, UDP,
SMTP, HTTP, and FTP
Global Impact – Silos & walled gardens, Net neutrality
o Discuss the benefits and risks of open versus closed platforms
o Analyze the legal, social, and commercial impact that the World Wide Web
has had on society
Innovations in Computing – Pioneers in computing, distributed computing,
ethics of autonomous technology
o Investigate a number of key individuals and breakthroughs in the
development of modern computing
o Explore the design goals and technological advances in the development of
computing innovations
o Examine the potential emergence of a technological singularity
o Investigate and extrapolate from recent advances in computing to make
predictions about the capabilities of future technologies
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o 8 hours of in-class work time for exploration, research, and creative
development
Create – Applications from Ideas
o 12 hours of in-class work time for exploration, research, and creative
development
Assessment & Project for Unit 8 to be completed by the end of Cycle 24
 Defining Artificial Intelligence – Chat bots, Watson, Elsa
Artificial Intelligence
Big Ideas:
Creativity [1]
Abstraction [2]
Data and Information [3]
Algorithms [4]
Programming [5]
The Internet [6]
Global Impact [7]
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Global Impact – Ethics of artificial intelligence, legal implications
Turing Tests – CAPTCHA
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Final Project