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Give credit or list as an extra-curricular?


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I've read many of the posts on giving credit vs listing something as an extra curricular, and I need some input on our situation. Ds has spent many hours basically "unschooling" computer programming this year- enough to earn a full credit. There was no set course of study, no testing, but he has made definitive progress and completed a few projects of his own design. He learns best in a Whovian fashion*. The other issue is because this really is his passion and other life situations, he has no other outside activities. He's quite content to spend hours doing this.

 

He's continuing with the programming and expanding into electronics and rocketry. He's doing the same thing with them. He just ordered a bunch of electronic parts to work with. He considered the Raspberry Pi, but opted to go with other stuff (I know nothing about this). He's also recruiting my dad (who knows electronics) to help him.

 

He's still undecided about what to study in college (I'm fine with that). I see him wavering between STEM and linguistics type right now. Would it look odd to apply to a STEM school without a technology credit on the transcript?

 

I'm not worried about overall credit amount, he has enough interests to keep a full schedule. I imagine he'll keep up the same pace with electronics this summer and fall, so I see a few options:

 

A: List programming and electronics as extra-curricular, noting hours and accomplishments.

 

B. List programming for credit this year, use it for an EC in following years. Do the same with electronics, tracking hours to determine credit amount.

 

C. Other???

 

D. More coffee...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Whovian fashion: if learning is a sequential ever increasing line, he jumps around from point to point (like a Time Lord) and extracts the information he needs and jumps again. It sounds chaotic, yet he really learns best this way in many subjects.

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You could list it as "independent study" under courses. For example ...

 

Independent Study: Computer Programming

Independent Study: Electronics and Rocketry

 

I wouldn't assign a letter grade though, just Pass/Fail. If you submit course descriptions, I would include a description of the resources he utilized and the projects he completed. The credit hours don't really matter that much, IMO.

 

On another note ... its not unusual for public school kids to do the same thing, and they generally don't receive "credit" for it. Usually they draw on these experiences to write their college application essays.

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Option B. Computer programming is taught as an academic course in schools, and I would give one credit for it.

If he is really into it, consider the option of having him take the AP Comp Sci exam for outside validation.

 

As for electronics: I have no clear idea what he is doing there. So, if you could pinpoint clearly what he has learned, give credit; if it is more random messing and tinkering with stuff, extracurricular.

I would not bother to label a class as "independent study" - in homeschooling, that line is completely blurry.

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DS did this. I bought him a few books at Border's (HTML, JAVA, etc) and he went at it. By the end of 11th grade, we were going through college course descriptions to see what he had covered (several of them). He did not take the AP Comp Sci test because his college has their own and he had heard that it wasn't worth anything (to colleges because it didn't cover enough). He tested out of freshman computer science (a required course that only a few kids out of the 1000 test out of each year) and is now happily majoring in comp sci.

 

BTW, you don't need to test him to determine a grade. Most of his comp sci courses at college have grades based on projects.

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You could list it as "independent study" under courses. For example ...

 

Independent Study: Computer Programming

Independent Study: Electronics and Rocketry

 

I wouldn't assign a letter grade though, just Pass/Fail. If you submit course descriptions, I would include a description of the resources he utilized and the projects he completed. The credit hours don't really matter that much, IMO.

 

On another note ... its not unusual for public school kids to do the same thing, and they generally don't receive "credit" for it. Usually they draw on these experiences to write their college application essays.

 

We have to keep track of hours for the state. I've also been keeping track of hours on these independent projects for many purposes. I guess that is my hesitation, that he'd do this stuff anyway. But realistically, he'd take a programming class in school if offered. He's learned more without my interference than if I had tried to put together a comprehensive schedule.

 

If he needs the credit, I like option B. credit for one year, then extracurricular in later years.

 

Thank you, he could use the credit this year as we dropped one class early in the year.

 

Option B. Computer programming is taught as an academic course in schools, and I would give one credit for it.

If he is really into it, consider the option of having him take the AP Comp Sci exam for outside validation.

 

As for electronics: I have no clear idea what he is doing there. So, if you could pinpoint clearly what he has learned, give credit; if it is more random messing and tinkering with stuff, extracurricular.

I would not bother to label a class as "independent study" - in homeschooling, that line is completely blurry.

 

He just started with the electronics, I'm not sure what he's doing either - he knows, I just don't get everything he tells me. He spent all of his money on a few Arduino boards, bread boards, and was removing transistors with the soldering gun from a broken CD/clock radio at midnight last night. My dad has enough electronic parts to open a store, so he'll go stay with them for a few weeks this summer and learn from "the master".

 

I'll look into the AP test, I had not considered that.

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My two kids are similar. They both self-taught computer programming using a variety of software, books, and experimenting with ideas till they worked. They got themselves to the stage where they were producing workable programs & were having fun pursuing projects on their own.

 

I decided to go with your plan B. I gave them both 1 credit for something like 'intro to computer programming.' Both did take the AP Computer Science class more formally in a later year, so I figured that verified the earlier course. Dd stopped there, but ds kept doing more on his own (and it was pretty much his defining passion in high school). All the extra stuff became an extracurricular for college application purposes, and something to talk about at interviews & incorporate into his essays.

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DS did this. I bought him a few books at Border's (HTML, JAVA, etc) and he went at it. By the end of 11th grade, we were going through college course descriptions to see what he had covered (several of them). He did not take the AP Comp Sci test because his college has their own and he had heard that it wasn't worth anything (to colleges because it didn't cover enough). He tested out of freshman computer science (a required course that only a few kids out of the 1000 test out of each year) and is now happily majoring in comp sci.

 

BTW, you don't need to test him to determine a grade. Most of his comp sci courses at college have grades based on projects.

 

Thank you. His projects have been pretty interesting and useful. He took a few things from something only a programmer would recognize to something I could use.

 

I offered to buy him books, he has a few, but he prefers to spend hours watching tutorials instead.

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My two kids are similar. They both self-taught computer programming using a variety of software, books, and experimenting with ideas till they worked. They got themselves to the stage where they were producing workable programs & were having fun pursuing projects on their own.

 

I decided to go with your plan C. I gave them both 1 credit for something like 'intro to computer programming.' Both did take the AP Computer Science class more formally in a later year, so I figured that verified the earlier course. Dd stopped there, but ds kept doing more on his own (and it was pretty much his defining passion in high school). All the extra stuff became an extracurricular for college application purposes, and something to talk about at interviews & incorporate into his essays.

 

That's a good course title. It's nice to see him so engaged in something. I'm not sure how far he'll go in programming. I feel like it will be a part of whatever he does, a foundational tool at least.

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We have to keep track of hours for the state. I've also been keeping track of hours on these independent projects for many purposes. I guess that is my hesitation, that he'd do this stuff anyway. But realistically, he'd take a programming class in school if offered. He's learned more without my interference than if I had tried to put together a comprehensive schedule.

 

If you have to keep track of hours for the state, I would definitely include them, whether they end up as credits or extra-curriculars on the transcript you send to colleges.

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I like the ideas that others have mentioned for giving a computer science credit.

 

Regarding electrical projects, one idea to explore is 4-H. My son regularly taught 4-H electrical projects to other 4-Hers. This involved teaching soldering, how to read electrical diagrams, etc. It was a great extracurricular for him that led to project book awards (honor, glory and dollars) at the state level. I am not sure how 4-H works in your state but this might be worth investigating.

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