1 - Honors Computer Science I

Computer Science I (CS1) is a foundational course covering essential computer science concepts and serving as a prerequisite for AP Computer Science Principles in CMS. It's the first step in North Carolina's CS & IT pathway for a Computer Science Concentration. There are the course highlights:

• CS1 imparts logic and problem-solving skills for program design rather than just coding.

• The course revolves around five key big ideas: Creative Development, Data and its Uses, Algorithms and Programming, Computing Systems and Networks, and Impact of Computing.

Benefits

1. Computing is a creative human activity that engenders innovation and promotes exploration

2. Abstraction reduces information and detail to focus on concepts relevant to understanding and solving problems

3. Data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge

4. Algorithms are tools for developing and expressing solutions to computational problems.

5. Programming is a creative process that produces computational artifacts

6. Digital devices, systems, and the networks that interconnect them enable and foster computational approaches to solving problems

7. Computing enables innovation in other fields including science, social science, humanities, arts, medicine, engineering business

Minimum Academic Pre-requisites:

None - This is an introductory course.

​Recommended Academic Proficiency:

Students will find the class more manageable if they feel comfortable with Mathematics and logic.

In class

• Explore computing innovations and their use in the world. Define both benefits and detriments of these innovations.

• Discuss the ethical and social implications of computer use.

• Use Snap! (block coding) to illustrate basic algorithmic logic.