In the 2017-2018 school year it was decided that we will no longer offer our survey course- Computer Programming, Systems and Robotics- each semester and instead offer two separate courses- Programming with Swift (Fall) and Physical Computing (Spring). These courses are being offered for the first time during the 2018-2019 school year.

In this course, students will explore computer programming in the context of physical machines and how humans and machines interact. Students will learn the basics of physical computing while working with simple circuits, open-source Arduino electronics, micro controllers (Microbit, Makey Makey), robotics (Lego EV3 and/or VexIQ) and other materials. Students will utilize hardware and software that can sense and respond to analog (not digital) inputs. We will explore wearable electronics as physical computers as well as deepen our exploration of autonomous machines with robotics.

In this course, students will program with the Swift computing language. Swift is a free, open-source interactive scripting language that enables users to write programming for iOS computers, Apple TV, Apple Watch, apps for mobile devices, smart TVs and many others. As part of our explorations, we will focus on user-centered design and the user experience. By the end of the course you will use Swift to produce your own apps. For those with experience in other programming languages, we will compare the functionality of other languages to Swift.