College in High School Course Syllabus
Computer Science - CS 0004
Introduction to Computer Programming: Basic
(3 Credits)
This is a first course in computer science designed to be of special interest to students majoring in one of the social sciences or humanities. The objectives of this course are to use the computer in an interactive environment, analyze problems, develop algorithms, learn the Visual Basic language, design code, and document programs using techniques of good programming.
One year of high school algebra is a prerequisite.
The grade is determined by the student's performance on programming assignments, two examinations, and a comprehensive final exam.
The recommended text for this course is Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic.NET, fifth edition (Prentice Hall Publishing, 2003).
The following topics are covered in the University of Pittsburgh Computer Science 0004 course:
- General
- Introduction to computers
- History of computing
- Hardware
- Software
- Operating systems
- Problem solving
- Analysis of problems
- Development of algorithms
- Flowcharts
- Pseudo-code
- Programming styles
- Procedural
- Object oriented
- Programming Concepts
- Syntax
- Date Types
- Variables and Constants: Modular, Local
- ASCII values
- Order of operations
- Operators: arithmetic, relational, logical
- Decision Statements
- If-then
- If-then-else
- If-then-else-if
- Select-case
- Loops
- For/next
- Do/while
- While/loop-while/wend
- Do/until
- Sentinel vs. counting loops
- Arithmetic Functions
- Arrays
- Strings and String Manipulation
- Functions
- Methods
- Formatting Output
- Format
- FormatNumber
- FormatCurrency
- FormatPercent
- Zone formatting
- Simple File Operations
- Traditional
- StreamReader
- Sequential Search
- Simple Sorting
- Documentation
- Counters and Accumulators
- Visual Basic Concepts
- Form design
- Toolbox objects
- Placing objects
- Property sheet and properties
- IDE
- Event-driven paradigm
- Debugging
- Focus
- Font style and size
- Menus code module
- Simple graphics
- Scope of variables
- Option explicit/option strict
- Multiple forms: visibility, share/exchange data