Does anyone know anything about this course, other than what can be gleaned from the College Board site? This will be offered at my kids’ HS next year. Would it be appropriate for a student that had already completed AP Computer Science A? It seems to cover other topics.
Asking here first, because I speak with the guidance counselor WAY too often, as I have both a junior and a senior at the school.
No - it is a lower level CS course (less programming) - intended to be introductory really and cover a range of topics.-- the Intent as i understand it is to get more students involved in CS.
You can learn a bit about the purposes of the new CS AP Course here: https://csp-cs4hs.appspot.com/faq
https://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/stem/computer-science-principles
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-computer-science-principles-curriculum-framework.pdf
Compared to AP CS A, it is likely a far better introductory CS course, since it provides students a big picture overview of what CS is all about (rather than just being a Java programming and some data structures course). The AP credit is probably not very useful, but the AP label may be necessary to give high schools incentive to offer it.
Here is the type of introductory college CS course designed for similar purposes:
http://cs10.org/
It is not a required part of the CS sequence for CS majors, but could interest undecided students into majoring in CS, and is much better than a course focused on programming for students in other majors who just want to understand what CS is all about.
If the student wants a big picture overview of CS (particularly as either an undecided student who may major in CS, or a non-CS major who wants to know what CS is all about), it is worthwhile from a content standpoint. S/he should not expect the AP credit to be that useful, though.
I was told that this class is a bit easier than AP Computer Science A.
It probably is easier, but being easier does not necessarily mean it is a worse course.
Our comp sci teacher is pushing current AP Comp Sci students to register for the new course next year. It sounds interesting but not as rigorous not sure if it will or should count as anything but elective credit in college. My daughter will potentially take it if she has a schedule conflict with her other elective choices.
The College Board is oddly pushing this new lower-level class to students who have already taken AP CS A. My son got an email from them that says, “So you’ve taken AP Computer Science A and can code your way through any challenge. Want to take it to the next level? Sign up for the new AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course, which will broaden your computing skills and show you the impact computer science has on your world.”
I guess it’s all about how many people take the test for them. My son wanted to know if he could just take the test, but it looks like there are portfolio submission requirements as with Art.
In this particular case, the course can be much more useful, in that a broad overview of CS (AP CS Principles) is almost certainly more useful to non-CS majors (and even some students considering majoring in CS) than a Java programming course (AP CS A). However, the AP CS Principles test is probably useless for subject credit and advanced placement.
My daughter has already taken AP Comp Sci but is interested in this class since she is thinking of majoring in comp sci in college. The field is so large that it could help her identify the area that interests her most.
@KaffeineKitty I’m not convinced that the course would be beneficial to someone who has already taken AP Comp Sci, but that would depend on 1) how the course is taught at your school and how flexible it is to let students explore more advanced topics, and 2) how much extracurricular experience the student already has.
I don’t think the course would be useful to my son because he has a lot of extracurricular experience at programming (USACO, FIRST, etc), cybersecurity, game design, teaching others, etc.
His school currently has an “Exploring Computer Science” class that can be taken prior to AP Comp Sci. I would expect that class will be modified a bit to meet the AP Computer Science Principles requirements. My son was a teaching aide for that class one semester, and felt it was a good introduction for kids who haven’t done much with computers previously and would have been lost taking AP Comp Sci as their initial programming class.
Ok, it looks like your kid with substantial CS experience beyond AP CS A should not take AP CS principles, but maybe he can be a teacher’s aide for it and pick up a few tidbits that he has not seen before, as well as more experience helping to teach others.
The more we have heard about the course the less interested I think my daughter is. It sounds like a big step down in rigor from AP CS and it’s project based but not programming per se which worries her that it will be a lot of fluffy posters and little interesting content. She’s probably going to opt for AP Stats instead since it’s the only AP Math she hasn’t already taken.
It was my understanding that the objective is for students to understand that coding is a tool that Computer Science students use, but there is a lot more to being a CS major than just coding. With all the interest in Computer Science as a major, I think it is a very good idea.
Our school is not offering it next year but plans to use it to replace the current intro to computer science class that is a pre-req for AP Comp Sci in the 2017-2018 school year… From what I can tell, that makes sense. Quite a few kids take the intro class for the state required tech credit and don’t move on to Comp Sci.
Even CS A is a watered down version of the old CS AB, I think it was called. I don’t see why they feel they need to keep dumbing down the offerings. This is a field where even quite a few middle school kids are able to teach themselves.
In the last year of offering, only 4,995 students took the AP CS AB exam. This is smaller than most currently offered AP exams, but Italian language and culture and Japanese language and culture have smaller numbers of students taking the exam. Other discontinued AP exams with smaller numbers of students were French literature and Latin literature.
@mathyone “I don’t see why they feel they need to keep dumbing down the offerings.”
I don’t think it is an issue of dumbing it down. It is needed, important information.
Students that love coding may not be so happy to discover that there is a lot more to CS than coding. Students that don’t love coding may be surprised to learn that there are a lot of amazing CS careers, where they would not spend much time coding. Tech companies need talented problem solvers.
I think the biggest problem with CS AB was the inability of most schools to find qualified teachers for the class. I know that the instructor for CS A at our school is in way over her head. When students ask her what they have done wrong that is causing their program not to work, she tells them, “that is part of the assignment.” It takes the students a while to figure out that she says that because she does not really know. lol
Then maybe it should be included in CS A in place of the B material that teachers were unable to teach.