This is a two-part course.

Students should have a general familiarity with computers – the ability to open applications, use menu-driven commands, and type using the keyboard – so that the emphasis of time can be placed on specific programming lessons.

Course Outline (week by week):

• Class 1: Introduction to Computer Science

• Class 2: Variables

• Class 3: Order of Operations

• Class 4: Debugging and Graphics

• Class 5: Modules

• Class 6: Functions

• Class 7: Selection

• Class 8: Iteration

• Class 9: Strings

• Class 10: Lists

• Class 11: Recursion

• Class 12 & Class 13 : Final Project

All materials for the course (e-books, assignments, lessons, and software) are available for FREE on the web and were developed specifically to help learners of computer science. You can access these tools as follows:

• All students: Welcome to CS (Computer Science) eBook by Runestone Academy (donation NOT required)

• Block Programming - Snap (web based) or Snap Offline (offline);

• Script Programming - How to Think Like A Computer Scientist using Python by Runestone Academy (donation NOT required)

• Access to a PC or MAC computer is required (the downloadable software does not work well on Chromebooks or tablets).

Some assignments will have a Catholic theme to them such as: create a video adventure game that illustrates a story from the Old Testament, create a quiz game that prepares someone studying for confirmation, research computer science projects at a Catholic University and report what you find, investigate how your Diocese/Church/Priest uses technology tools, completing programming exercises, and online quizzes which provide immediate scoring feedback. In this course, students have an option to share their programs with fellow students either via a short in-class demonstration, by uploading them to the tool’s website, or by creating a screen capture video. All assignments are given and graded by the instructor. Students will also collaborate with fellow students and mentor them when needed to reinforce their knowledge by helping others. Students can expect 2 to 5 hours of time per week (outside of class time) dedicated to homework. Regular feedback will be provided to the students and their parents to ensure that all are aware of the progress being made throughout the course.

Each week, you will have a small programming assignment.  At the beginning of the course, you must choose one of two ways to complete programming assignments.  You can either choose the block coding path or the script-based path.  If you are a beginning programmer, you may want to choose block coding using Snap!. If you have more than one year's experience with programming, you may want to choose script-based using Python.   You will indicate your choice by completing and submitting either the block or scripting assignment for the first assignment.  You may switch from one to the other only once before Week 3.