[Edu-sig] Independent study topic?

[Jacob Lee]

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Hi. I'm a junior in high school who has essentially run out of computing
courses. I took Computer Science AP freshman year (got a 5 on the AB
exam) and have the opportunity to perform an independent study in some
topic this semester. The question is what area of study to pursue.
Ideally, any topic will have a textbook available, be easily
self-taught, and be something that will benefit from being able to
devote 50 minutes/day to it. This means that another programming
language would not be a suitable topic, since I can learn that over the
Internet (and yes, I've already learned Python :-p).

I have identified the following textbooks as possibilities and was
wondering if anyone has comments or suggestions:

Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science
Applied Cryptography
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (the LISP book)

I'm leaning towards Concrete Math, but I'm concerned that it might be
too hard (I'm currently in Calculus BC, which means I'll essentially be
taking Calc II concurrently with the independent study). Does anyone
have experience with this textbook?

Also, if anyone has any other suggestions that aren't on this list or
opinions on these textbooks, that would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance.

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Jacob Lee (ArthurDenture) <alphac@flashmail.com>
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