Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a regional Governor's school in Northern Virginia, offers five years of Computer Science. Our goal is to provide a world class Computer Science education to our students and to disseminate curriculum materials to other academic institutions.
Information for Rising 9th Grade Students Flow Chart of Computer Science Courses 2011-2012 TJHSST Course Offering Online Guide
Summer School Computer Science
How better to spend five weeks of summer than learning Foundations of Computer Science with 150 of your closest TJ friends? It's a great way to fit more into your cramped schedule.  Two student assistants per class give you extra help.  Not only is there an ice cream social and a pizza party, but you may even get to work with teachers from outside TJ.

To apply to be a Summer School student assistant:
Student Assistant information document
Student Assistant recommendation form

Computer Systems Lab Summer Research Initiative
A non-credit course providing students the opportunity to begin work on a Computer Science project appropriate for entry in a school science fair or the Intel/Siemen's competitions. For rising seniors at TJ this is also a chance to start early on your required techlab research project. For all students this is an opportunity to build up your resume for college applications. The prerequisites are any year-long course in Computer Science, or two semester courses, leading to proficiency programming in any one language: Java or Python or C.

Questions should be directed to Dr. Torbert in Room 115 or by email to smtorbert@fcps.edu.

For information on dates, hours, and cost, click here.

Foundations of Computer Science
Foundations of Computer Science is for students without programming experience. The course includes object-oriented programming, Java graphics and animation, GUI interfaces, arrays and files, sorting, recursion, data representation, Boolean logic, and ethics.  The course is lab-based with an emphasis on cooperative learning and developing problem-solving skills.   This course satisfies the computer science requirement for graduation from TJHSST.

 

Accelerated Computer Science
Accelerated Computer Science is for students who have had a year of programming experience.  Students should be self-motivated and already interested in pursuing a three-to-four year program in computer science including AP Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, parallel computing, and a Senior project in the Systems Lab.  The course covers the same content as Foundations of Computer Science but at twice the pace.  Additional material includes statistics, graphics, and programming games.


AP Computer Science plus Data Structures
This course is a standard second-semester college course on algorithms and data structures in an object-oriented environment.  The sorting algorithms include selection, insertion, merge, quick, and heap.   The data structures include arrays, recursion, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, sets, maps, and graphs.  Additional topics include the Java Collections framework, Big-O analysis, and class design.  Java is the language of instruction.  Students taking this course should be independent thinkers able to spend a significant amount of time at a computer outside of class. Since this class prepares students for TJ's follow-on courses, it includes college material going well beyond the topics tested by the College Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science A exam.   Textbook: Lambert & Osborne, Fundamentals of Java: AP Computer Science Essentials for A and AB Exams. (3rd ed.), Thompson, 2006.  Lost book price: $126.00.  Prerequisite:  Foundations of Computer Science or Accelerated Computer Science, or by passing the CS placement test.

 
Artificial Intelligence 1 & 2
These half-credit semester courses teach the standard techniques in Artificial Intelligence.  The language is Python in a Linux environment.  These courses carry the same extra grade point value as an AP course. Prerequisite: AP Computer Science plus Data Structures


Parallel Computing 1 & 2
These half-credit semester courses teach the concepts and techniques in parallel computing.  The language is C with MPI and OpenGL in Linux and SolarisHalf.  Other systems taught include CUDA, OpenMP and XMT-C. These courses carry the same extra grade point value as an Honors course. Prerequisite: AP Computer Science plus Data Structures


Senior Tech Lab
This course in Computer Systems Research satisfies the Technology Independent Research credit that is required for graduation from TJ. This course carries the same extra grade point value as an Honors course.
TJ Home Page   HTML Tutorial Pretty Colors