11 January 2013
COMPUTER SCIENCE: Calling all techies and computer whizzes.
By Tyler Demshki, Staff writer
Poly has many AP courses under its belt: AP Psychology, AP European History, AP Biology and many more. There is one AP course, however, that has not seen the light of day, despite it being among the range of classes Poly can offer. This class is AP Computer Science.
This AP course has seen little to no implementation. In fact, the only time the class has been at Poly was once, ten years ago, when it was an independent study course and, for the most part, a failure. Due to the disorganized nature of independent study, no student passed the AP test. However, this scenario is not indicative of the difficulty of the class itself. There are teachers at Poly that are perfectly capable of taking it on as a legitimated class period; the only issue is getting the students.
Generally, an AP course requires a roster of 25 students in order to be integrated into the school schedule. Obviously, Poly has not been able to meet this number for AP Computer Science, considering the class has not yet been offered. That is not to say, however, that there is no interest. 17 students applied for this class last school year—a pretty high number for such a relatively niche class. With a bit more information spread to incoming classes, enrolling 25 students is a definite possibility.
This is because the requirements for this class are relatively low. The pre-requisites are completion of the year-long Computer Gaming class and either completion or concurrent enrollment in Algebra II. The main issue with this is spreading information. Most students will complete Algebra II at Poly. The Computer Gaming elective, however, is a tad more esoteric, and some potential AP Computer Science students may not know taking it is required for the more advanced AP Computer Science until it is too late.
Luckily, if this student benchmark is reached, there are essentially no obstacles for the class. Teacher Michele Philyaw has the credentials necessary to teach the class (she taught it at another school) and the AP syllabus is all but approved. The class merely needs a few more programming whizzes to get it off the ground.