Pi-Chrome Project

Objective: Learn about the recommended prerequisites for this course.

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This course has been designed to be the culminating course in a high school computer science pathway consisting of a total of 4 courses.  We start students out in a course called Intro to Computer Science where students learn the basics of programming using the Python programming language using a resource called CS Academy - a project of Carnegie Mellon University.  Our next course in the sequence is AP Computer Science Principles, which is a broad computing course.  Our third course is AP Computer Science A, where students learn about object-oriented programming with the Java programming language.  We require students to take at least 2 out of the 3 courses before delving into this culminating course.

I mention these details to give you some context of the students at our school who are taking this course.  Many, if not all, of the activities in this course could be accomplished with a learner that has no prior experience in programming.  The most important prerequisite is a deep interest in computers and a desire to learn.  Throughout the course, there will be many times that you find yourself having to do some research on your own to work through a challenge that you are trying to overcome.  As mentioned in Lesson 1, this is a good thing and imperative skill/behavior of a person working with technology.

I hope wherever you are on your path in programming, that you consider giving this course a shot.

That wraps up Unit 1!  Let’s start to get into the good stuff - setting up the hardware!:)

Resource Links:

AP Computer Science A: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-a

AP Computer Science Principles: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-principles

CMU CS Academy: https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/

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