A focused high school student writing Java code on a large monitor, a whiteboard of class diagrams visible behind them

Java & Object-Oriented Design

Grades 11-12 · 6 units · 36 weeks · 180 one-hour periods · 180 hours of instruction

This is the course where students start working like software engineers. Covering every unit of the AP Computer Science A framework and preparing students directly for the AP Exam, it teaches Java in a professional editor with git version control and automated unit tests as everyday habits rather than advanced extras.

The arc runs from primitives to polymorphism. Students master the mechanics - types, operators, control flow - then learn to think in objects: designing their own classes, composing them into systems, and extending them through inheritance. Arrays, ArrayLists, searching, and sorting get a full treatment, including the classic algorithm analysis the AP Exam demands, and a pixel-level image unit lets students hide secret messages inside photographs using two-dimensional arrays.

Each phase ends with an open-ended team build - an escape-room engine, a targeted-advertising simulator that doubles as an ethics case study, a real-dataset investigation, and a free-choice final project - so students practice reading requirements, dividing work, and presenting finished software, not just passing exams.

View the full lesson plan — all 180 periods →

Course structure — 6 units, 6 weeks each

In every unit, weeks 1–5 build the skills and week 6 applies them in a project, with a deliverable due at the end of each day.

Unit 1

The Machine Beneath the Syntax

6 weeks

Unit 2

Objects and Choices

6 weeks

Unit 3

Iteration and Class Craft

6 weeks

Unit 4

Collections, Search, and Sort

6 weeks

Unit 5

Pixels and Hierarchies

6 weeks

Unit 6

Recursion and the Real World

6 weeks