I am curious to how important the last two units (Data and Cybersecurity) are for the AP MC Exam.
I made it through almost all of Unit 5 by the end of Fall Semester, but because we have only about 2 hours of class per week, I will need to start my AP Create Task in early/mid March to finish on time (I’m also planning to assign MC prep for HW and have small review discussions in class).
Given that I’ll have to cut something, what triage are other teachers performing in terms of Algorithms, Functions, Data, and Cybersecurity?
Hi @mrosenwasser,
According to page 164 and 165 of the Course and Exam Description,
You can see there’s a section explicitly about data, and it looks like there are some security-related standards in Impact of Computing.
It sounds like you’re facing a situation where there’s just no way to cover everything as you’d like. I wonder if some topics lend themselves to be more easily “consumed” through videos or other self-paced direct instruction compared to other topics. That way instead of completely cutting some stuff, students have at least ways to self-study.
Not sure if there’s a released practice exam this year, but I might take a look at those questions and/or the practice questions in the Course and Exam Description (p 172) to see what relevant questions might look like and see what looks more self-study-able.
I too am not sure how much time I will have for Units 9 and 10. Unit 9 is 9 days but 2 of them are for a project and 1 is the assessment day. Unit 10 is 14 days but 7 of them are for a project and 1 is an assessment day. I will be looking at the projects to see if they can shortened as I get there.
Did you end up shortening the projects for units 9 and 10 last year?
If so, may I ask how it went; and if you would you be willing to share any documents/instructions that you created for your students in this process?
Thank you in advance for your support. It is my first year teaching this course and computer science!
I did! I tried doing it but then had to abandon it part way through because of hiccups to our school calendar. Last year I just skipped the project altogether (made Unit 10 a quick 2-week unit) and skipped Unit 9 entirely. Although I think it was fun, students preferred feeling more confident about the exam to a few fun days in class.
This year I am planning to circle back and cover some data/ machine learning stuff after the AP Exam is over using Crash Course AI and Excel.
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