Computer Science

Students with strong interest, and motivation, may enroll in this C++ course, which covers data types, logic development, loops, arrays, functions, and strings. Students learn how to write, comment, and debug code by creating programs of increasing complexity and length. Students also demonstrate their understanding and mastery of the material by taking quizzes and tests on paper. There are no midyear or final exams, but the course culminates with each student completing an individual final project. Full-year, one credit

This course follows the recommendations of the College Board. In the first semester, the main concepts taught in Programming I are extended using object-oriented programming (OOP) principles. The second semester of this course entails a deeper study of non-primitive data types and recursion along with particular attention to OOP design, ArrayLists, inheritance, and polymorphic behavior. In addition to regular course work, students are required to participate in American Computer Science League competitions. This course prepares students to take the AP Computer Science A exam. Prerequisites: Programming I, departmental approval required. Full-year, one credit

This full-year advanced Java course begins with a very intense review geared to the topics taught in the AP Computer Science course. The focus of this course is on advanced data structures: linked lists, stacks, queues, and binary trees. The course also explores data files, the major algorithms of sorting and searching, and culminates with an extensive study of command line programming using Perl. In addition to regular course work, students are required to participate in all contests of the American Computer Science League. Prerequisites: Programming I, AP Computer Science, departmental approval required. Full-year, one credit