As students at Westside begin to select the courses these two weeks, Westside Wired is going to preview a different department each day. The Westside Wired staff hopes to help educate students on the changes within each department and also highlight less-known classes. 

In the growing field of computer science, Westside offers the opportunity for students to learn how to program in various languages through the three computer science courses offered here.

“We’ve seen technology becoming a bigger and bigger part of our world and that growth is not going to stop anytime soon,” computer science instructor Ryan Stejskal. “In order for a person to become not only a consumer of technology but a creator of technology, it is important to have some idea of how the technology is created and what is going on inside.”

Computer science spans past an interest in technology and encompasses other interests as well.

“Creative students — if you like making things and if you like coming up with your own thing,” Stejskal said. “Also students who like logic and puzzle solving. Those are the qualities we look for in computer science.”

Students who fit these qualities and are interested in computer science should sign up for the Intro to Computer Science class. The class teaches the foundation of all computer science through the simple yet modern language of Python.

“The skills students learn in Python are definitely skills that will carry them and let them develop programs of their own if they find that they like making computer programs,” Stejskal said.

After taking the introductory class, students can then take a C++ class and the AP Computer Science class, which teaches the Java language, in their following years. Though they can take these in either order, Stejskal recommends students take C++ after the introductory class if they plan to take both classes while at Westside to help build a better foundation of programing before taking the AP class.

“Certainly try it out if you have an interest in it,” Stejskal said. “We’d like to encourage all students to at least look at computer science because it is going to be a big field [in the future]. The growth rate is huge.”

This was the preview to the computer science department at Westside. Here is the preview to the science department. Check in tomorrow for a preview on the Social Studies and English departments.