# High School- CS Discoveries vs. CS Principles

**URL:** <https://forum.code.org/t/high-school-cs-discoveries-vs-cs-principles/39641>\
**Category:** General Teaching and Learning (All Grades)\
**Created:** [August 8, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/high-school-cs-discoveries-vs-cs-principles/39641 "2024-08-08T15:44:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hatte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d2c977/32.png) [@hatte](https://forum.code.org/u/hatte)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/high-school-cs-discoveries-vs-cs-principles/39641/1 "2024-08-08T15:44:56Z")

</div>

Hi all! I am developing a new coding course for my school this year and I am considering using [code.org](http://code.org) as the platform to teach it on. I am trying to figure out the best course to use for this class between CS discoveries and CS principles (or maybe something else entirely?)

The class is designed to be specifically a coding/programming course. This is the only coding/programming course taught at our school, but we do have a hardware + design course offered as well. The class is a semester-long elective, available to all grades 9-12, and with no prerequisites, so will have a very wide range of student abilities and grade levels. Most students may have had a small amount of coding experience in middle school, but nothing more than that.

Given that the course is a semester and will have such a wide range of ability levels, I am hesitant to choose CS Principles, especially since that course seems more difficult to pick and choose units from. However, I know that CS Discoveries is only suggested for up to 10th grade, so I don’t want to have students bored or flying through the material. Does anyone have experience mixing and matching between these two courses? Or only doing specific units from CSP/teaching it as a semester-long course? Or is there enough challenge in CSD to keep all of my kids engaged?