IT students
IT students

The High School Computer Program

The High School computer curriculum is the top end of a vertically integrated technology program at UAS. It consists of two programs: Introduction to Personal Computers (IPC) and an elective course, Programming.

ipc

Microsoft Office Application programs (Office) are the most used and most popular computer application programs in the world today. Almost every government throughout the world uses Office in their day to day work. The vast majority of universities and colleges use Office. It is critical that high school students have an understanding of Office programs. Once equipped with knowledge of these programs, students will be able to use them intelligently as tools for development of projects, essays and assignments in their higher education studies and/or as tools for meeting the challenges and demands of post-secondary life. When working anywhere on a computer, students will encounter Office programs.


Bearing in mind the importance of these programs, the IPC course is compulsory for all students in High School, and is a prerequisite for more advanced computer studies. It is designed for students with a grade eight proficiency in Office Applications. By the end of the course, students will be able to intelligently use all features, including many at the advanced level, of the major Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel, Access, and basic XHTML/css web page design. The goal is to equip students with sufficient understanding of these programs so that they may apply them to other subject areas. They should be able to concentrate on the task at hand without worrying about how the program works. In other words, students using Word to write a History essay should be able to concentrate on what they are writing about rather than how to use Word.

The IPC course is a hands-on course where students investigate and work on the individual programs. This is done more or less at their own pace, but within an overall time constraint. They learn by doing. The teacher is a consultant, and helps students by pointing them in the right direction but not actually doing the work for them.

The course is one semester (one-half a year) in length, divided into two terms. Students work 1 ½ hours each day, which gives them approximately 120 hours. Term I includes Word and XHTML. Term II includes Excel and Access, with a PowerPoint project if time permits. Successful completion of the IPC course earns the student one credit.

programming

This year (2006-2007), we have introduced C# (C Sharp) as the IT programming elective course. C# is a true object orientated programming language, combining the power and speed of C++ with the development ease of Visual Basic. It is faster, more powerful than Java and can create real Windows applications (Java cannot). C# is 100% integrated into the Windows Operating System. This means students can learn the fundamentals of C# in a console enviroment similar to Java, and then advance to creating real Windows application programs. C# will better prepare our students who are thinking of majoring in computing programming/Information Technology at University.

C# concepts: First term: variables, constants, operators including overloading, logical if statements, for, for next, foreach, switch, do, while, methods, parameters and return values, params, out, overloaded methods, dynamic and static arrays, passing by reference or value, structures, classes, virtual methods, abstraction, polymorphism, single inheritance, events, indexers and delegates, exceptions and more. Second Term: development of windows programs, incorporating everything learned in term I into real world programs.

This course is recommended for those students who earned an A or high B in IPC and who wish to study a computer/IT field in University. Please note: Even though this is an entry level programming course, the material is challenging. Having C# on your home computer is a definite plus.

Successful completion of the Programming course earns the student one credit.

Goals

Back to Top