Iowa Online AP Academy’s (IOAPA) curriculum provider, Project STEM, has made its CS Python Fundamentals course available for IOAPA middle school students to take as a condensed one-semester version of the course this spring. IOAPA provides free access to high-quality, online, advanced course offerings for Iowa students who would not otherwise have access to these courses in their schools. These courses are offered asynchronously so they can fit into any schedule. In addition, our middle school program allows students in grades 6-8 to take high-school-level classes online while still in middle school. This means that advanced middle school students interested in exploring Computer Science or STEM can start their journey in January!
CS Python Fundamentals (formerly called Introduction to Computer Science) is an introductory course for students new to programming that teaches the foundations of computer science. No prerequisites are required. In this course, students will learn problem-solving strategies, software design, and the foundations of computer science using two key tools: the Project STEM programming environment and EarSketch, a software package that turns your code into music. This course prepares students for further computer science coursework such as AP Computer Science A and AP Computer Science Principles and helps to develop critical thinking skills.
Spring enrollment is open for IOAPA courses as well! More information about our other spring courses can be found here. While our registration cutoff for this coming semester is December 16th, we will accept late registration for this course until January 2, 2023 in order to provide schools and students time to register for this opportunity. To begin, if your school is new to IOAPA or has not yet registered for this year, visit our website (belinblank.org/ioapa) and review the Getting Started information. If you are ready to register, head over to the registration section of our website and click “Register Now”. If you are trying to register after the normal registration cutoff of December 16th, please email ioapa@belinblank.org to get a school-specific late registration link.
As always, please feel free to reach out to us at ioapa@belinblank.org with any questions.
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