By Zack Gill
Staff Writer
Mira Costa students have many options for class selection. Advanced Placement Computer Science will be yet another new option vying for the attention of aspiring computer programmers and hobbyists next year.
Video game design and computer graphics teacher Mitch Williams is teaching one section of AP computer science a for the 2011-2012 Mira Costa school year.
Students entering the 10th grade who have completed geometry and received an A in algebra 1-2 are eligible to take the course.
“It’s a full-year course that should get you a semester of computer science class credit for a college,” Williams said.
The class will only be offered if enough students decide to take the course.
“At the information session, we had about 30 students show up, so I’m pretty confident I’ll have a full class next year,” Williams said.
The AP Computer Science curriculum expects students to be competent in the Java programming language and Gridwork by the end of the year. However, programming knowledge is not a pre-requisite to take the course.
“I don’t have a lot of programming knowledge,” junior Ryan Chase said. “That’s one of the reasons I want to take the course; I can broaden my knowledge.”
The College Board provides various tools to aid students in learning programming. Gridwork is one of the programs that students are expected to learn about in preparation for the AP exam.
Students around the country complain that skills learned in high school are never used in real-life situations, but AP computer science may be the exception.
“I feel like this is going to be a course that will be incredibly beneficial to me in science and in life,” Chase said.
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