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 0, September 25th                                         

• Reading: a bit of computer history in Wikipedia (optional)
• Topic: Big Ideas in Computer Science
• HW: Hour of Code 

 

 

 

 

Week 1, September 28 - October 2  

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 1
• Topic: Overview - It's all just bits, good or evil?
• Snap: Introduction (Kaleidoscope)

 

 

 

 

Week 2: October 5-9

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 2
• In the news: One Stupid Tweet
• Topic: Privacy in the Internet Age
• Snap: Loops and Building Your Own Blocks (Field of Flowers)

 

Week 3: October 12-16

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 3
• In the news: Boeing 787 power loss
• Topic: Representing Data
• Snap: Conditionals and Variables (Number guessing game)

 

Week 4: October 19-23

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 4
• Topic: The Internet and the Web
• Snap: Abstraction and Testing (Brick Wall)

 

 

 

Week 5: October 26-30

• Reading: Why the future doesn't need us, Rise of Concerns about AI
• In the news: Human or Computer?, Turing Test
• Topic: AI, HCI, and Robots
• Snap: Multiple Sprites (game or story)
• Midterm on Friday the 30th

 

Week 6: November 2-6

• Reading: Blown to Bits chapter 5,
• In the news: Technology is Magic, New York Times, Washington Post
• Topic: Cryptography
• Snap: Lists (Sentences or Higher Order Functions)

 

 

Week 7: November 9-13 (Wednesday is a Holiday)

• Reading: OSI Model, History of the Internet, Warriors of the Internet 
• Topic: Networks
• Snap: Recursion and Fractals 

 

Week 8: November 16-20

• 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: November 23-27 (No class Fri)

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

Week 10: November 30 - December 4

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

Final Schedule

• Wednesday, December 9th, 4-7pm