** Please see addendum on last page.
Number of credits: 1
Grade Level: 11 & 12
Prerequisites: 90% or better on Math B regents or 85% or better in Pre-calculus or special recommendation from Math department chair. Students must be self motivated and mature enough to work in a college learning environment.
APExam: Tuesday, May 7, 2008 (mandatory)
Classroom Policies:Students are expected to conduct themselves as young adult learners, actively engaged in the learning process. They are expected to be respectful of their colleague’s personal property and ideas. They are also expected to use lab and lecture time wisely and come prepared for their lessons having read and completed all required assignments in accordance with the syllabus’ due date.
Materials:
o Horstmann, Cay. Java Concepts, 4th ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2006
o Trees, Fran. AP CS Study Guide (For Horstmann’s Java Concepts) 4th ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2006
o Larson, Kathleen A. & Levine, David, 5 Steps to a 5 AP Computer Science, NY, NY, McGraw Hill Companies: 2005
o Manipulatives: such as Bingo Chips, buttons, egg crates, paper airplanes
o AP GridWorld Case Study
o Notebook
o Thumb Drive
o Index Cards
Required Software: Students will have access to school Library computers until 4:00pm each day and while not necessary, they should also have a computer available to them at home with the following free software –
Course Overview: AP Computer Science A level is a full year course that immerses students in System analysis and design of object oriented software solutions. Students are expected to spend at least four hours a week programming, and at least 4 hours a week in design, analysis and development. At the culmination of the course students will be able to:
n Identify the major hardware and software components of a computer and a network, including but not limited their purpose and how they relate to each other.
n Analyze Code to determine results of operations and efficiency of code
n Determine the relationship between input and output including identifying data sets, simple data structure and the differences between data types.
n Find logic, runtime and compile time errors in methods and programs
n Understand the basic concepts of object oriented program design including calls to classes from client programs and the relationship between the two
n Understand the basic concepts and differences of inheritance, interfaces and objects of classes (“has a”, “is a”, and “does” relationships)
n Understand the basic concepts of programming, including but not limited to loops, conditional statements, instantiation, and lifetime of variables.
n Analyze and correctly use the standard library classes from the AP Java Subset
n Design, Code and debug programs using the Java Language in a clean, efficient, objected oriented manner
n Use a case study to analyze design, development of classes, interaction of classes and programs and predict results of programs
n Compile, run and modify said case study to add functionality
The Exam: The exam is split into two sections. Section I is comprised of 40 multiple choice questions. Section II is comprised of 4 questions broken into three parts. In this section students are expected to complete methods or sections of code according to the specifications given in the question.
Students will have 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete section I. Section I will have at least 5 questions concerning the AP Case Study (GridWorld).
Students will have 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete section II. Section II will have a least 1 question devoted to the AP Case Study (GridWorld).
Scoring the Exam: Section I is worth a total of 40 points. The student will receive one point for every correct answer and lose a quarter point for every wrong answer. Students do not lose points for questions left blank. Section II is worth a total of 36 points. Each question is worth 9 points (3 points for each part of each question). Sections I and II are each worth 50 percent of the exam despite the point difference.