mirabillis Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 (edited) I'm on a roll following rabbit trails - and have some thoughts bubbling over... Thought I'd post and ask the Hive for their always spot-on advice. :-)) I plan to have my ds take AP Computer Sci through PAH next year (10th grade) - or maybe Florida Virtual School (FLVS). Class description says no previous programming experience required, but some have mentioned on these boards that they felt it might have helped especially in the first few weeks. Can you give me some good pointers? We're looking for a .5 or 1 credit course anyway to fill in this year - and I thought programming would be right up his alley. Thanks!! Edited October 1, 2016 by mirabillis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 (edited) We considered this class, but some students have mentioned complaints similar to the ones we had about AP Human Geo. Given your other thread, I thought I should mention it. Have you read the reviews? They are mixed. Edited September 30, 2016 by Woodland Mist Academy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirabillis Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 Hmm. interesting. Thank you for that thought! I had read reviews, but I'd really only seen positive reviews. I'll look harder. I've also seen a rave review regarding AP Computer Science from Florida Virtual School - so that is possible too. http://blog.prepscholar.com/best-online-ap-courses-reviewed Any other thoughts on possible pre-coding requisites for such a course to make it easier? Code Academy? Coursera? Anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 Edhesive offers an intro class with Python that's suppose to go before the AP class. That could be a cheap and effective way to get some programming experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 My daughter took it through PA Homeschoolers last year. No previous experience (and I would not say that she is one who is particularly computer savvy at all.) She did fine, got an A, and a 5 on the exam. She really enjoyed the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 My ds did the AP exam last year but for him it was more a result of what he has been teaching himself for years. I think it would be helpful to your ds to do codeacademy, although it has apparently changed greatly from when my dc's did it. My son's next steps were to do free online courses through Coursera. I think he did python from Coursera next. I believe both Edx and Futurelearn offer beginning courses also. My ds believes that the free content is always better than paid for learning programming. ;) With free your ds can just quit if the course isn't right for him. My son has completed many online freebies but he has also quit many. He has also done several to the point where he learned what he wanted to figure out. I just went into Futurelearn and found this course which I think one of ds's friends has done. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/begin-programming. It starts at the end of October. Maybe work on Codeacademy until it starts. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 What about Homeschool Programming JAVA? My son really liked it. He didn't use it to take any AP exams though so I can't comment on that. It says it could prepare one for that. A heads up though. When I went looking at the possibility of that exam, I could not find a school locally who even offered it. It doesn't seem to be all that popular for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsintheGarden Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 A heads up though. When I went looking at the possibility of that exam, I could not find a school locally who even offered it. It doesn't seem to be all that popular for some reason. It's getting more popular. totalregistration.net says that AP CS A was the fastest growing of all AP courses in 2016. That site is useful for a brief synopsis of how students performed on each test. Our local hs will administer any AP, but we had to get a lawyer involved to get them to agree to that. It was a pain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirabillis Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 Our local hs will administer any AP, but we had to get a lawyer involved to get them to agree to that. It was a pain. You go for it! Pain it may be, but good for you!! I'm leaning toward Edhesive's Intro to Computer Programming.... sounds like it might be a great intro ahead of AP. Also we're in need of some electives, and he loves the computer. :-)) Gr8Lander - we're leaning towards PAH. I'm glad your dc liked it! Thanks SparklyUnicorn on the advice for AP testing locations... we'll delve into that soon for his first AP course this year... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Ap Comp Sci uses Java, but I don't know if there are good into to java courses. There are some great courses at CodeCademy that we highly recommend. Just having any programming experience will help! The schools around here allow AP Comp Sci as 9th graders, so *if* you have the logical problem solving capability to prigram, AP Comp Sci is one of the easier AP courses. That's why I think your ds should try a programming course from CodeCademy before signing up for Ap Comp Sci. IMO not all people can do it. Many highly intelligent people are sequential memorizers but not necessarily logical problem-solvers and would find it very frustrating. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Ap Comp Sci uses Java, but I don't know if there are good into to java courses. There are some great courses at CodeCademy that we highly recommend. Just having any programming experience will help! The schools around here allow AP Comp Sci as 9th graders, so *if* you have the logical problem solving capability to prigram, AP Comp Sci is one of the easier AP courses. That's why I think your ds should try a programming course from CodeCademy before signing up for Ap Comp Sci. IMO not all people can do it. Many highly intelligent people are sequential memorizers but not necessarily logical problem-solvers and would find it very frustrating. The Futurelearn class I linked https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/begin-programming earlier uses Java. It's supposed to be a no experience needed class. I am assuming you program basic games which I think they do in one of the codeacademy modules also but without the Java. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I would learn some Python. That way you learn all the actual coding without the yucky Java stuff. My kids worked through the first half of Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, and you'll get a lot of great exposure before next year. Also, consider the edhesive AP CS course. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirabillis Posted October 5, 2016 Author Share Posted October 5, 2016 Daijobu - did you buy the Parent & Homeschool package for the AP CS course? I think we'll try the Intro to Comp Sci first for a semester credit.... then plan to do AP CS somewhere next year... maybe edhesive if we like the Intro course. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gratia271 Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 My daughter took AP Comp Sci through Edhesive and recommends it. Being a MOOC, it affords flexibility in scheduling and deadlines. She said the review materials for the AP exam itself were excellent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjbucks1 Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 My ds took a computer programming through the Potter's School in 8th grade and AP Comp Science through PA Homeschoolers in 9th grade. He really enjoyed the Potter's School course, and felt the PA Homeschoolers class was fine. He took logic in 7th grade and felt that was a big help with programming. That would be an easy .5 credit course to add. He is currently a freshman majoring in computer science at the University of Alabama. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Kahn Academy online has some JAVA programming lessons. They are pretty good according to my husband who is a database architect. Our son got a 5 on the exam, but he'd been programming for years in Visual Basic for a couple of years, coding games, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Daijobu - did you buy the Parent & Homeschool package for the AP CS course? I think we'll try the Intro to Comp Sci first for a semester credit.... then plan to do AP CS somewhere next year... maybe edhesive if we like the Intro course. Both. My older daughter joined the class late...in January. We took the free option, and didn't purchase the additional materials. But later she told me she wished I had. So that's what I'm doing this year with my younger daughter. For your money you get additional quizzes and worksheet, which I like to provide to her for more practice, but it's definitely optional, especially if you have a student who is strong in CS. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 My son agrees with DiJoBu about taking Python instead of Java. He says Python is really easy to learn and makes more sense. Then, you can do AP COmputer Science and deal with Java. You can learn to program in any language, and then you add on more languages, so start with Python. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.