Friday, August 19, 2016

AP Computer Science Principles training in Chicago

     I just spent a week in Chicago with teachers from all over the United States.   We were all there to learn about teaching the new AP Computer Science Principles Course using the curriculum at code.org.  The first time the test will be given and scored for college credit is in the 2016-2017 school year.

     TeacherCon was an amazing experience. The team from code.org were invested in our learning and put in a lot of time and effort to make our experience positive, engaging and informative.  The chance to experience the inquiry and discovery components of the course was invaluable, since the course is set up to be hands on discovery by the students.  Letting students discover how technologies were developed will have a lasting effect on students.  When they are developing their own ideas they will have something tangible to refer back to instead of just memorizing how the previous solutions were developed.

     At this time, my school does not teach any AP courses.  This will be the first in what I hope to be a long line of APs that will available for my students.  AP CSP is an intro CS course that anyone should take in high school. The curriculum does something for our students that not many others do and that is inquiry, discovery and creation of things that already exist, so that they can understand how these technologies and protocols came into being.  This will give my students a solid foundation in understanding of the current technology so that they will be able to improve those technologies or create new.

     I am truly looking forward to implementing this curriculum and opening up possibilities that may not have existed before this course.  This course can give my students a glimpse into how computers are used everywhere in their life and how having a basic understanding can help them in the future.

     A unique opportunity of this AP exam is that students will submit 2 Performance Tasks before they take the 75 question multiple choice test.  The first Performance Task will challenge my students to explore a technology and write about it's impact on the world.  The second Performance Task will have the students create a program and write about their experience creating it and how a section of the code works. This will e great practice for their other classes, since reflection is a large part of the learning process in the course.  Later they will take those reflections and use them in their writing for the Performance Task.  This practice in writing will be helpful in my students being able to formulate an idea or stance and be able to support it through writing.

     I can't wait to get started!

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