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, January 9 - 13  

• Reading: a bit of computer history in Wikipedia (optional)
• Topic: Big Ideas in Computer Science
• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 1
• Topic: Overview - It's all just bits, good or evil?
• Snap: Introduction (Kaleidoscope)
• HW: Hour of Code 

  

Week 2: January 16 - 20 (lab sections not held on Monday, a holiday)

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 2
• Snap: Loops and Building Your Own Blocks (Field of Flowers)

 

Week 3: January 23 - 27

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 2 (moved from week 2)
  
• Topic: Privacy in the Internet Age (moved from week 3)
• Logic gates practice: Basic Gates and Functions (continuation from week 2)
• Topic: Representing Data (continuation)
• Snap: Conditionals and Variables (Number guessing game)

 

Week 4: January 30 - February 3

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapters 3 & 4
• Topic: The Internet and the Web, Networks
• OSI Model, History of the Internet, Warriors of the Internet 

• Snap: Abstraction and Testing (Brick Wall)

 

 

Week 5: February 6 - 10

• Snap: Multiple Sprites (game or story)
• Midterm on Thursday February 9 at 8am

 

Week 6: February 13 - 17

• Reading: Why the future doesn't need us, Rise of Concerns about AI
  
• Reading: Chapter 4 Blown to Bits
• Topic: AI, HCI, and Robots. Cont. The internet and the web
• Snap: Lists (Sentences or Higher Order Functions) 

 

Week 7: February 20 - 24 (lab sections not held on Monday, a holiday)

• Reading: Chapter 5 Blown to Bits
• Topic: Cryptography
• Snap: Recursion and Fractals 

 

Week 8: February 27 - March 3

• 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")
• Topic: Data Representation, Logic, Huffman Coding, Binary Numbers
• Snap: Start on final project

Week 9: March 6 - 10

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

Week 10: March 13 - 18

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

Final Schedule

• Thursday, March 23, 8am - 11am