Resource Map for Imparting Key 21st Century Skills

CS Principals

Grade 9-12 | 11 Units

Lesson Plan Description

CSP introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world. The AP Program designed AP Computer Science Principles with the goal of creating leaders in computer science fields and attracting and engaging those who are traditionally underrepresented with essential computing tools and multidisciplinary opportunities.

C-11 units

Unit 1: Digital Information ('23-'24)

No.Of Lessons: 13

Unit 2: The Internet ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 8

Unit 3: Intro to App Design ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 8

Unit 4: Variables, Conditionals, and Functions ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 13

Unit 5: Data ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 10

Unit 6: Lists, Loops, and Traversals ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 14

Unit 7: Parameters, Return, and Libraries ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 12

Unit 8: Cybersecurity and Global Impacts ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 12

Unit 9: Create PT Prep ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 5

Unit 10: Algorithms ('23-'24)

No.of Lessons: 7

Unit 11: CS Principles Post-Course Survey

Subject Content

Unit 1: Digital Information ('23-'24)

This unit explores the technical challenges and questions that arise from the need to represent digital information in computers. Learn how complex information like numbers, text, images, and sound are represented in text, how compression works, and the broader social impacts of digitizing the world's information.

Unit 2: The Internet ('23-'24)

This unit reveals how the Internet was designed to connect billions of devices and people to one another. Learn how the different protocols of the Internet work and actually build them yourself using the Internet Simulator. Then consider the impacts the Internet has had, both good and bad, on modern life.

Unit 3: Intro to App Design ('23-'24)

This unit is an introduction to programming and app design with a heavy focus on important skills like debugging, pair programming, and user testing. Learn how to design user interfaces and write event-driven programs in App Lab and then design a project that teaches your classmates about a topic of your choosing.

Unit 4: Variables, Conditionals, and Functions ('23-'24)

This unit explores how variables, conditionals, and functions allow for the design of increasingly complex apps. Learn how to program with these three new concepts through a sequence of collaborative activities. Then build your own decision-maker app to share with friends and help them make a decision.

Unit 5: Data ('23-'24)

In this unit learn how data analysis helps turn raw data into useful information about the world. Learn how to use data visualization to find patterns inside of data sets and learn how this data analysis process is being used in contexts like open data or machine learning to help make decisions or learn more about our world. In the unit project, you'll analyze a dataset of your choosing and present your findings.

Unit 6: Lists, Loops, and Traversals ('23-'24)

This unit introduces lists, loops, and traversals, and explores the way they can be used to build apps that store and process large amounts of information. Learn to program with the data library in App Lab and complete a 5-day hackathon project at the end of the unit where you can design a program about any topic of your choosing.

Unit 7: Parameters, Return, and Libraries ('23-'24)

This unit introduces parameters, returns, and libraries. Learn how to use these concepts to build new kinds of apps as well as libraries of code that you can share with your classmates. End the unit by designing a library of functions around any topic of your choosing.

Unit 8: Cybersecurity and Global Impacts ('23-'24)

In this unit learn how computing innovations have impacted our world in beneficial and harmful ways. Learn how data can pose a threat to our privacy and security and the ways that encryption and other techniques are used to protect it. Throughout the unit participate in a "school of the future" conference in which you and a team make a proposal for how best to improve school life with computing innovations.

Unit 9: Create PT Prep ('23-'24)

In this unit prepare for, and do the AP Create Performance Task. Each lesson contains links to helpful documents and activities to help you understand the task and develop a plan for completing it.

Unit 10: Algorithms ('23-'24)

This unit is a quick exploration of how computer scientists design algorithms to solve problems and how they analyze the speed of different algorithms. Learn about the concept of algorithmic efficiency through a variety of hands-on activities and learn how it's being applied in modern computing.

Unit 11: CS Principles Post-Course Survey

This unit contains a survey about the CS Principles Course. Your teacher will tell you when it's time to take this survey.