AP Computer Science A Labs
- Level High School
- Contact Hours 15
- Timeframe Unit
This course is home to labs meant to prepare students for the AP CS A exam. Use this course to meet the 20 lab hours required for AP CS A, or as additional coursework for students post-exam. Labs include 6 College Board recommended labs with accompanying student guides and 3 CodeHS originals.
To view explore the full course, click here.
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Consumer Review
The persuasive power of words can be seen in a variety of places such as entertainment, news, social media, and even reviews and comments. Students learn about sentiment value and how this can be used to construct or modify a review to be more positive or negative using String manipulation. This lab can be used after Unit 4: Iteration in Nitro, and Unit 3 Methods in Mocha |
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Magpie
Students learn how to use String methods and pattern matching to create a chatbot that they can have a conversation with. Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 5: Writing Classes in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 4: Classes and Objects in AP CS A (Mocha). |
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Picture Lab
Students learn how to write methods to modify pictures. They'll explore the way pictures are stored in memory, nested loops, interfaces, and inheritance. Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 9: Inheritance in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 5: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). This assignment does not align with College Board Standards, as it uses Interfaces. |
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Elevens
Students learn how to use Object-Oriented design to create a solitaire card game. At the end of the lab, students use a Graphical User Interface to play the game they create! Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 6: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). This assignment does not align with College Board Standards, as abstract classes are not covered in AP CS A (Nitro). |
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Battleship
Students learn how to use Object-Oriented design to implement the board game Battleship. Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 8: 2D Arrays in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 5: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). |
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Pokemon Simulation
Students learn how to create a Pokémon battle game using Object-Oriented programming to implement Pokémon, trainers, and moves! Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 9: Inheritance in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 5: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). |
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Blackjack
Students learn how to use basic data structures in Java including arrays, ArrayLists, 2-dimensional arrays, and HashMaps to create a game of Blackjack. Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 7: ArrayLists in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 5: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). |
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Mad Libs
Students learn how to write a program that allows users to create their own Mad Lib stories! Students can complete this assignment after finishing Unit 7: ArrayLists in AP CS A (Nitro), or Unit 5: Data Structures in AP CS A (Mocha). |
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Celebrity Lab
Students learn how to discuss class design as it relates to the game Celebrity, where a person or team tries to guess the name of a celebrity from a given clue or set of clues. This lab includes inheritance as the basis for one of the activities and also includes a Graphical User Interface. This lab can be completed after Unit 9 Inheritance (Nitro), or Unit 4 Classes and Object-Oriented Programming (Mocha). |
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Steganography Lab
Steganography is the practice of concealing messages or information within other non-secret text or data. Students explore the concepts of steganography and 2D arrays, hiding images or text inside of other images. This lab can be completed after Unit 8 2D Arrays in AP CS A Nitro, and after unit Unit 5 Data Structures in AP CS A Mocha. |
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GridWorld Lab
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