AP Computer Science to be offered at City

January 24, 2012

As part of City High’s renewed effort to add AP classes to its curriculum, AP Computer Science will be offered next year in place of the original Computer Science course, and, according to the to-be teacher of the course Danelle Knoche, should be a big improvement over the latter.

“The class that we used to teach was through Kirkwood, it was a two trimester course,” Knoche said. “An advantage to this course (over the previous one) is that it’s a full year, college-level course, but it’s taught at a high school pace, so you can get college credit for a semester course and not have to pay for that class once you get to college.”

The course has been taught at West High for many years; according to Knoche it has “been taught since it was C++.” (C++) is a computer programing language similar to that of Java, which is the programming language students will learn to use in the new class. Computer Science is a growing field in both the educational and job markets; having taken the course, especially the AP version of it, is a requirement for some majors and can lead to jobs in many markets.
“I think that students should take this course if they are looking to go into any sort of computer science, engineering, or any kind of math related field,” Knoche said. “Plus, you can do programming in business, you can do programming with some kinds of art, there are a lot of applications for the field.”

Students who are now registering for courses and wish to take the course, it is available to anyone who has taken, or will be, in Algebra II, the year they take AP Computer Science. For more information talk with your guidance counselor or contact Danelle Knoche, who teaches several math classes already at City.

“The course has many applications and would be good for all sorts of students to take,” Knoche said. “I look forward to teaching it!”