Computer Science Course Development

(1)

Computer

Science

Course

Development

Co

‐

Chairs:

Alexandra

Vlachakis

and

Delda

Hagin

Tentative Completion: We plan to have these courses approved in January so they will be ready for registration in February. However, it is more important that we have courses that will be viable in the future as technology evolves. For that reason we do not want to rush these through the process but, instead, take a purposeful approach for each of the four courses we ultimately plan to develop. We will continue adding to this document as we work on developing these courses.

Course

Descriptions:

Game

Design:

Animation

and

Simulation

Students completing this course will gain an understanding of the fundamental principles used at

every stage of the game creation process. First, game genres and modes of play are explored in

terms of the psychology of incentives, motivation to play, and social networking. Next, virtual

characters and non‐player characters are reviewed from concept drawing to 2D and 3D art, rigging,

and animation. Next, level design, storytelling, and animation are added to develop a virtual world

around the characters. These same techniques are at work in training simulator systems, virtual

shopping experiences, augmented reality, and a number of other important career options. Schools

offering this program can provide a foundation of traditional drawing, illustration, and art courses to

make way for the 2D and 3D animation, storytelling, character development, audio, and game

technology.

Students taking this program are strongly encouraged to add an internship to their curriculum which

will give them real world experience, understanding how the computer game industry works. Game

Design: Animation and Simulation is the third course in the Game Design pathway. After mastery of

the standards in this pathway, students should be prepared to take the end of pathway assessment

in this career area. Prerequisite for this course is Introduction to Digital Technology and Computer

Science Principles.

Embedded

Programming

The demand for programming (software development) has gone well beyond desktop computers and

the web, into a ubiquitous world of personal devices, smart cars, intelligent factories, and even more.

These systems interact with us directly, as well as with each other. This course will focus on the

interaction of programming and devices, using data from various sensors and sources in order to make

decisions, take actions, and more. A common industry term to describe this work is Internet of Things.

Students will show first‐hand how programming and machines interact to accomplish common and

essential tasks throughout our society.

Embedded Programming is the third course in the Internet of Things pathway. After master of the

standards in this course, students should be prepared to take the end of pathway assessment in this

career area. Prerequisites for this course include Introduction to Digital Technology and Computer

(2)

Web

Development

This course, with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) as its foundation,

will teach students to develop and design responsive web sites through coding, testing, debugging and

implementation of web‐based services. This course will also allow students to learn about content

management systems, client side languages, server side languages, and database concepts. The course is

designed to give students foundational knowledge of "front‐end" and "back‐end" development to

address the presentation and data access layers of web site development.

Web Development is the third course in the Web Development pathway. After mastery of the standards

in this course, students should be prepared to take the end of pathway assessment in this career area.

Prerequisites for this course include Introduction to Digital Technology and Web Design.

List

of

Team

Members:

Shaded

boxes

indicate

business

&

industry

partners

who

were

actively

involved

in

writing

and

reviewing

course

standards.

Name Agency or Business/Position Contact Information

(e‐mail and phone) Mike Finley Principal, AnswerRocket.com (Former Vice President of Radiant Systems and

NCR Corp)

[email protected] 404‐661‐1515

Delda Hagin Georgia Department of Education/

Program Specialist CTAE – Information Technology; Business Management &

Administration; Finance

[email protected]

404‐657‐8307

David Harrington Google

Regional Manager, Education Division

John Pritchett Georgia Department of Education/

Middle School Curriculum Coordinator

Career, Technical and Agricultural Education

Mike Reilly Gwinnett County School District/

Computer Science Teacher at Lanier High School

David Della Rocca Unity Technologies [email protected]

George Schramm Technical College System of Georgia/

Curriculum Program Specialist for Computer Careers

[email protected]

404‐679‐5251

Alexandra Vlachakis Code.org Georgia/Florida District Manager

[email protected]

770‐969‐2840

Tony Vlachakis Georgia Department of Education/

Education Technology Specialist

[email protected]

404‐232‐1322

Heather Maxfield Vice President, Government Affairs and Statewide Economic Development

Technology Association of Georgia

75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 625,Atlanta

[email protected]

404.920.2022

Chris Thompson CEISMC@ Georgia Tech, Assoc. Director of Technology & Student Activities (Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, & Computing)

[email protected] (404) 939‐3593

Scott Rush Hewlett‐Packard, Senior Cybersecurity Business Mgr [email protected]

Yancey Vickers Red Clay Interactive, Technical Director [email protected]

678‐928‐4108

Zach Abernathy Red Clay Interactive [email protected]

678‐928‐4108

Charles Hardnett Gwinnett Technical College, Instructor [email protected]

678‐226‐6483

(3)

Name Agency or Business/Position Contact Information

(e‐mail and phone) 267‐467‐4312

Drew Minock Daqri, Co‐owner (augmented reality) [email protected]

517‐404‐1936

Brad Waid Daqri, Co‐owner (augmented reality) [email protected]

517‐404‐1936

Edward Doan Google, Engineer [email protected]

404‐210‐5341

German Vargas CCGA (USG) [email protected]

Cindy Toland CASIE, Executive Director [email protected]

Chris Lybeer Kredible, Chief Innovation Officer [email protected]

678‐938‐3941

Chris Hamilton Novarata, Inc. [email protected]

404‐272‐2394

Dov Jacobson Games That Work, Studio Manager [email protected]

404 806 5428

Andrew Greenberg Georgia Game Developers Association, Executive Director [email protected]

678‐612‐4709

Eric Parker The Clubhou.se [email protected]

650‐714‐4894

List

of

Meetings

and

Online

Collaborations

of

CS

Course

Development

Team:

December

17,

2014—Sub

‐

committee

was

appointed

from

the

full

CS

Task

Force.

We

met

to

discuss

various

items,

including

current

courses,

proposed

courses/pathways,

professional

development,

and

certification

(Delda

Hagin,

Alexandra

Vlachakis,

Dr.

John

Pritchett,

Tony

Vlachakis).

February

9,

2015—Delda

Hagin

emailed

advisory

committee

to

attend

course

standard

writing

session.

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; 'rjean‐

[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; Gilda Lyon <[email protected]>; Juan‐Carlos Aguilar

<[email protected]>; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]';

'[email protected]'; '[email protected]'

Good morning. I am the new Program Specialist at the Georgia Department of Education for the

Information Technology career cluster. We have more exciting things happening in our content area this

(4)

proposing that courses which are heavy in coding and programming be used to satisfy the graduation

requirement of the fourth math, fourth science, or a foreign language sequence. We have a few courses

already that we are recommending but we would like to add more options for our students. To that end,

we have drafted a description of five more courses which I have attached to this email.

We need your help in writing the curriculum for these proposed courses. Would you be willing to work

with us for one or two days to write the standards for these courses? Our goal is to have these courses

ready to start the approval process by July 1, 2015 with implementation in the 2016‐17 school year. When

responding to this email please let me know which course or courses fall in your area of expertise. We

want to have a good mix from industry, secondary education, and post‐secondary education.

Once I get responses from you I will work on getting a couple of dates for us to come together to write the

curriculum. Thank you for everything you do for the future of our students!

March

19,

2015—Met

to

begin

developing

outline

and

course

content,

including

course

description

draft

(Chris

Thompson,

Scott

Rush,

George

Schramm,

Yancey

Vickers,

Zach

Abernathy,

Charles

Hardnett,

Alexandra

Vlachakis,

Delda

Hagin).

March

‐

May,

2015—Ongoing

online

collaboration

on

all

documents

using

Google

Docs;

several

emails

went

out

asking

for

input;

ongoing

email

conversations

between

various

individuals.

May

4,

2015—Met

online

to

begin

to

put

course

content

into

DOE

format

for

course

standards,

including

developing

rigor

according

to

required

depth

of

knowledge

(Alex

Vlachakis,

Delda

Hagin).

May

4,

2015—Emailed

first

course

to

advisory

committee

to

review

course

content

and

provide

edits

and

feedback

as

necessary.

May

13,

2015—Met

at

DOE

to

write

course

standards

using

appropriate

depth

of

knowledge

and

format

(Edward

Bujak,

Alex

Vlachakis,

John

Pritchett,

Delda

Hagin).

May

21,

2015—Conference

call

with

industry

partners

on

Google

Hangouts

and

collaborated

on

Google

Docs

regarding

augmented

reality

standards

(Drew

Minock,

Brad

Waid,

Alex

Vlachakis,

Delda

Hagin).

June

4,

2015—Computer

Science

Task

Force

(full

committee)

met;

asked

for

assistance

identifying

more

business

and

industry

people

to

review

courses

we

are

developing

June,

2015—

As

a

result

of

our

request

at

the

June

4 CS

Task

Force

meeting,

Delda

Hagin

sent

the

following

email

message

to

all

the

names

received

([email protected],

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

(5)

Good morning. I am the new Program Specialist at the Georgia Department of Education for the

Information Technology career cluster. We have more exciting things happening in our content area this

year. The governor is looking to include more coding and programming in our schools at all levels. He is

proposing that courses which are heavy in coding and programming be used to satisfy the graduation

requirement of the fourth math, fourth science, or a foreign language sequence.

We are in the process of developing four courses that are heavy in programming. We need your help in

reviewing these proposed courses. I am including the links to the shared documents below. Please feel

free to make changes in the document on the side bar. Also, we would love your contact information if

you decide to help.

Here are the links to the courses. Feel free to provide comments and feedback on any course. We need to

have your input by June 30, 2015, if at all possible.

Course for Internet of Things:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QNnUqpR04hlIlgXd_k5onJGcNM_JQ6hoFuXW‐

0_1jFU/edit?usp=sharing

Course for Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Animation in Game Design:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GXFv‐

Z5bofjOiLGzuMRmnffz3xvXvf4uLolOPlQtysQ/edit?usp=sharing

Course for Web Development:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SwQ2D1HopMZuiLBRbC47i3oNESywqHxqHrPv6Xp_JOY/edit?usp= sharing