[Edu-sig] AP Computer Science

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I teach two courses that are new to my school this year using SAGE and 
by extension python.  I also teach AP CompSci (used to be AB now A).

The first is a rewrite of my "Computer Math" course using Maria and 
Gary Litvin's new text "Mathematics for the Digital Age."  This course 
used to be an intro to computer science and is a pre-requisite to AP 
Computer Science the following year.  Now its more of a Discrete Math 
class but we use SAGe and do plenty of python.  Mainly Regents track 
Juniors and Honors track Sophomores take this.

The second is a lab course, "Calculus Research Lab" (I wanted to call 
"Scientific Computing Lab," but my boss changed it), that meets every 
other day like a science class for my AP Calculus BC students.  We use 
several free pdf texts from http://www.sagenath.org to do Calculus in a 
computer lab setting and we use some python.  These students are very 
over scheduled, so this new lab is not required.  To get enough kids to 
sign up for this new course, I had to open it up to the AP Calculus AB 
students too so there's a lot of review for my BC kids which ain't all 
bad.

HTH,
A. Jorge Garcia
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009

Teacher & Professor
Applied Mathematics, Physics & Computer Science
Baldwin Senior High School & Nassau Community College