Computing & the Connected World

This course delivers complete coverage of the AP Computer Science Principles framework and prepares students for both the AP Exam and the Create performance task - but it treats the AP outline as a floor, not a ceiling. Students code in real Python inside a professional editor, tracked in git from week one, and every big idea in the framework is learned by building something.

The year moves in widening circles: from code as a creative medium (generative art, then a complete playable game), to the machinery of the internet itself - how a photo becomes bits, how those bits find their way across the planet, and how encryption keeps them private. Students then become data scientists, collecting sensor data, cleaning messy public datasets, querying them with SQL, and arguing from evidence about what the data can and cannot prove.

The final stretch goes beyond most CSP offerings: students build agent-based simulations, train a small machine-learning classifier by hand, run code in the cloud, and assemble a standards-compliant Create Task portfolio. Throughout, recurring innovation briefs sharpen the skill the AP Exam rewards most - analyzing a computing innovation's benefits, harms, privacy footprint, and unequal effects.