Joy of Computing

Course Overview:

This Joy of Computing online course is offered by our partner 2SigmaSchool. This is an introductory-level course meant for all students, grades 7 or higher, regardless of whether they intend to pursue a major in a STEM discipline or not. You don’t need a prior background in computer science or even basic programming. One year studying Computer Science will help students explore careers they may not have considered open to them. 

Students who take an introductory course such as the Joy of Computing —

  • Gain confidence in problem-solving abilities
  • Understand better how computers really work
  • Broaden their understanding of how computers impact every career and discipline
  • Stretch their creativity by bringing their own ideas to life
  • Learn skills that they can apply to a wide range of fields and interests
  • Learn new ways to help their community through technology

This class introduces students to the big ideas of computer programming in a fun, friendly, and graphical way. The emphasis is on creativity and problem solving, and not on learning a particular programming language. This is a project-based course. Students learn fundamental building blocks of programming by building graphical narratives and stories during class and get live feedback from their instructor.

The course is taught using Snap! a block language developed at University of California at Berkeley to teach programming to students ages 13 to adult. Unlike Scratch, Snap! is a very powerful language that can be used to teach advanced concepts like recursion, functional programming, and so on.

The primary objective of the course is to inspire a passion for computer science and motivate students to further study, lay a solid foundation of computer programming fundamentals, and develop creativity and problem solving skills. By the end of the course, students will be ready to take text-based programming language courses such as Python and Java. This course is offered to students in grades 7 or above as their first computer programming course.

Back to top