Decoding the future of technology

Y8 Programme

At the Year 8 level, an ICT course is taken by all students, which is a continuation of their ICT studies that YKPS students took in Y6 and Y7 at the YK Pao Middle School. Our Y8 ICT course is a very popular project-based learning class in which students learn about computer hardware and software, coding, web authoring and digital multimedia. 8th graders are taught ICT for differentiated instruction and this allows mixed ability students to share ideas and work together to accomplish classroom goals while at the same time attaining mastery of essential academic success skills such as improving their English writing, communication skills, and making presentations in the teamwork and project-based environment.

Students in Y8 also continue to master the basic apps in Microsoft Office 365 suite of software applications which are essential to continue academic success in the following years of study. All of these skills will serve them well in their high school years. Digital responsibility is strongly emphasized for year 8 students at the very beginning of this course in order to ensure that students understand the potential dangers of online activities.

IGCSE Programme

For IGCSE students, we offer the IGCSE Computer Science course which runs from Year 9 through Year 10 and gives students a thorough introduction to computer science including more in-depth study of how computer hardware and software work together, the use of memory, processing, the input/out cycle, networking technology and of course more in-depth lessons in computer programming and web and multimedia design. Digital responsibility is again emphasized for both Y9 and Y10 students so that they continue to evolve and develop responsible, safe and wise online habits and practices.  

IB Programme

We also offer the IB Computer Science course at both the SL and HL level which goes much further in depth into most of the most important computer science topics already studied in the IGCSE computer science course. The IB Computer Science course is recognized as an introductory college-level course in computer science and many universities around the world do offer this course to incoming freshmen to begin their studies of computer science. The IB Computer Science course includes an in-depth study of the science behind the world wide web. 

This includes an understanding of how search engine optimization works, how web sites are designed and built, how the Internet utilizes a variety of networking technologies to power the web, and how the structure of the world wide web can be analyzed and visualized. Students learn about the latest cutting edge applications and technologies available to developers on the web and they learn about how the world wide web is constantly evolving and developing semantic meaning applied to the various data types that are used every day on the web in our daily life.

Co-curricular Clubs

In addition, students from Year 8 through Year 12 have access to exciting and cutting edge robotics and engineering clubs where they hone their abilities to code and design and build interesting and very technical projects. The YKPS TreeMan FTC Robotics club is the proud recipient of top awards in the FTC robotics league in China and continues to innovate and learn about sophisticated robotics technology in the school’s Maker Space lab. Students who participate in the robotics club develop important leadership skills as they manage the design and build process of the robot technology. 

Other clubs include Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining with Python, 3D Modeling and Design and basic to intermediate computer coding with Python.

Article by Jason Borovick, Head of High School ICT. To learn more, please watch the above video.