Elementary Programming with Python + ACSL
Code: CS11F
Type
Fundamental
For Grades
4-5
Description
This course is the first part of Programming with Python curriculum for elementary school students. This course also trains students for the Elementary division of the prestigious American Computer Science League (ACSL) which is a team contest. Students participate in the contest in AlphaStar teams during the class sessions.
Objectives
- Providing initial programming experience for young students
- Understanding the fundamental programming concepts and be able to implement them in Python
- Boosting problem solving skills
- Learning some of the fundamental Computer Science concepts by preparing for the ACSL contest.
Who should take this course?
- No programming background is necessary
- Recommended for students who are good at grade level math at school
Content
The course content is designed in a special interactive way with respect to the guided inquiry based teaching model.
The topics are grouped under two main titles in the course: Introduction to Python and ACSL contest as follows:
- Introduction to Python
- Variables
- Conditionals
- Loops
- Arrays
- Nested Conditions
- Nested Loops
- ACSL Contest (as indicated in the Elementary Division topics in the contest)
- Elementary Computer Number Systems
- Elementary Prefix/Infix/Postfix Notation
- Elementary Boolean Algebra
- Elementary Graph Theory
These topics are taught utilizing 90+ programming exercises and 10+ easy former USACO Bronze problems.
In addition, there are 4 fun and challenging game projects that reinforces the programming and problem solving skills.
In the course, there are two exams; a midterm and a final exam. Additionally, ACSL has 4 contests throughout the year and these contests will be in-class.
In case you would like to get credit for this course at your school, it may be helpful to present the following document to your school administration. It shows the course's alignment with the Computer Science standards.
AlphaStar published the "Introduction to Python: A problem-solving based approach" book where the first-half of the book is the compilation of the lessons in this course. The book is not required for the course.
Next Course
The next course is CS21F-2: Programming with Python - Part 2.
It is recommended to complete at least 50% of the course (certificate of succesful completion) before taking the next one.
