Key Ideas
Computing and science are connected:
scientists utilize computers as tools for conducting research
computer-based models and computational thinking are increasingly used
computer science is a rigorous field of study regarding "artificial" systems
utilizes the scientific method and experimentation; computational thinking
new scientific fields such as bioinformatics and data science blur the lines
Programming is a tool for:
solving problems
experimentation
analysis
Computer science is more than just programming:
problem solving
design & analysis of algorithms
hardware design and manufacturing
interface design and implementation
theoretical understanding of computation
Skills Developed
Problem-solving skills
Analytical/Empirical reasoning skills
Communication skills
Web page development
Programming Concepts
static (HTML) vs. dynamic (JavaScript) pages
dynamic elements (images, buttons, boxes, paragraphs, divs, spans)
element attributes (href, src, id, height, value, valueAsNumber, innerHTML, style)
event handling (onclick, onmouseover, onmouseout)
variables & assignments
e.g., gallery, form, oldmac
data types & expressions
e.g., tip, interest, pick4, level
functions & libraries
e.g., pick4func, pick4lib, dice, oracle
conditional execution
e.g., tip, letter, dicestats, slots
software models
e.g., disease, disease2D, volleyball, volleystats
counters & sums
e.g., dicestats, slots, volleystats
General Concepts
Computer basics
von Neumann architecture, hardware vs. software
World Wide Web
history, browser & server, HTTP, caching, cookies
Internet
history, distributed, packet switching, TCP/IP, DNS
History of computers
generations (relays, vacuum tubes, transistors, IC, microprocessors, ULSI)
Scientific & Computational Thinking
history, scientific method, consistency vs. accuracy, computational thinking
Algorithms & programming
algorithms, efficiency, high-level languages, compilers & interpreters
Computer Science as a Discipline
CS as science?, central themes (software, hardware, theory), subfields, related fields
Inside the Data
analog vs. digital, binary numbers, number/text representations
Inside Multimedia
analog vs. digital, sound/image/video representations, compression techniques
Inside the Computer
transistors, gates, integrated circuits, circuit manufacture, Moore's Law
Impact of Computing
positive impacts: money, everyday tasks, info source, communications, commerce, ...
potential dangers: debt, overreliance, overload, addiction, privacy & security, ...
Bridging the Divide
digital divide, diversity in the tech sector, algorithmic bias
Applications in science
machine learning: supervised learning, neural networks
cryptography: history, private-key vs. public-key encryption, e-commerce
biology/bioinformatics: computer tools, biological databases, modeling (e.g., disease spread)
modeling & simulations: Monte Carlo methods, random walks, dice, slots, volleyball