PLTW Computer Science

Computer Science is a CTE major that prepares students for college and career by providing real-world experiences. Students learn about topics such as programming, software development, and web design. The major also provides students an in-depth look in advanced topics in computing while providing them the opportunity to develop skills in critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and mathematical reasoning. All courses are offered at the honors-level, which means students will participate in an academically rigorous CTE major, and students who successfully pass a PLTW end-of-course exam will receive dual weighting. 

Required Courses

PLTW Computer Science Essentials

Computer Science Essentials exposes students to a diverse set of computational thinking concepts, fundamentals, and tools, allowing them to gain understanding and build confidence. Students use visual, block-based programming and seamlessly transition to text-based programming with languages such as Python® to create apps and develop websites, and learn how to make computers work together to put their design into practice. They apply computational thinking practices, build their vocabulary, and collaborate just as computing professionals do to create products that address topics and problems important to them. This is a required course for this major. 

PLTW Computer Science Principles

Using Python® as a primary tool and incorporating multiple platforms and languages for computation, this course aims to develop computational thinking, generate excitement about career paths that utilize computing, and introduce professional tools that foster creativity and collaboration. While this course can be a student’s first in computer science, students without prior computing experience are encouraged to start with Computer Science Essentials. Computer Science Principles helps students develop programming expertise and explore the workings of the Internet. Projects and problems include app development, visualization of data, cybersecurity, and simulation. PLTW is recognized by the College Board as an endorsed provider of curriculum and professional development for AP® Computer Science Principles (AP CSP). This endorsement affirms that all components of PLTW CSP’s offerings are aligned to the AP Curriculum Framework standards and the AP CSP assessment. This is a required course for this major. 

PLTW Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity introduces the tools and concepts of cybersecurity and encourages students to create solutions that allow people to share computing resources while protecting privacy. Nationally, computational resources are vulnerable and frequently attacked; in Cybersecurity, students solve problems by understanding and closing these vulnerabilities. This course raises students’ knowledge of and commitment to ethical computing behavior. It also aims to develop students’ skills as consumers, friends, citizens, and employees who can effectively contribute to communities with a dependable cyber-infrastructure that moves and processes information safely. This is a required course for this major. 

PLTW Capstone

PLTW Capstone is a capstone course for students who are completing any of PLTW’s high school programs. It is an open-ended research course in which students work in teams to design and develop an original solution to a well-defined and justified open-ended problem.

Teams draw on the knowledge, skills, and interests of each member, as they perform research to select, define, and justify a problem. Given this collaboration, team members leave the course with a broadened skillset and an appreciation for learning from their peers. After carefully defining the design requirements and creating multiple solution approaches, student teams select an approach, create, and test or model their solution prototype. As they progress through the problem-solving process, students work closely with experts and continually hone their organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills, creative and problem-solving abilities, and their understanding of the integration of processes such as the design process, experimental design, and the software development process. At the conclusion of the course, teams present and defend their original solution to an outside panel.

PLTW Capstone is appropriate for 12th grade students who are interested in any technical career path because the projects students work on can vary with student interest, and the curriculum focuses on collaborative problem solving and project management. Students should take PLTW Capstone as the final PLTW course, because it requires application of the knowledge and skills introduced during the PLTW foundation courses. This course is not designed to teach additional content, but to empower students to find resources—mentors, subject matter experts, research articles, peers, and teachers—to meet their needs, bolster their skills, and solve the problem they have selected. This is a required course for this major.