Unit 7 Libraries lessons necessary for Create PT?

CS Principles AP Prep
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Due to the modified Quarter/Block schedule our school has implemented to facilitate distance learning, I am teaching all of the coding units and the Create PT during Q1, and I’ll be doing the non-coding units during Q3 when I see students again. I am under a lot of time constraints (instructional minutes are basically half of a typical year), so I’m looking for anything that I can cut in Q1 so students can have their required 12 hours of work time before the quarter ends. I plan to come back to cover these topics in Q3. I’m skipping the unplugged Algorithms Unit 6 in Q1, and looking at the scoring guide for the Create PT I am considering cutting out the libraries lessons and project from Unit 7 so that I can give them more time to work on the Hackathon Project from Unit 5 which seems more aligned to the Create PT (and more fun/engaging for the students).

As long as students can use lists & loops (Unit 5), and parameters (unit 7), they should have the skills required for the Create PT. Am I missing something? Does this seem like it can work? Looking for a thought partner. Thanks!

1 Like
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Hi @sean.glantz! Libraries are not required on the Create PT, but are in the framework so their may be a question or two about them on the exam. We included libraries before the Create PT prep unit, because libraries force students to have to think about encapsulating their code into meaningful functions, which is required for the Create PT.

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Thank you @hannah for the quick reply and explanation. This gives me a bit more clarity on how I can modify/adapt for our current situation. I will likely include the lessons on libraries but skip the project :frowning:. I Look forward to teaching the course in it’s entirety next year, I really like the changes!

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I skip the project on this. If its not needed for PT app I focus on AP Pseudo MCQ’s not code.org