Top Banana is offering a new class for 7th and 8th graders: Information Technology and Computer Science. The course is designed to give children the opportunity to learn the principals and ideas behind the computers and gadgets they use every day. The instructions are rigorous but age appropriate and fun! The classes will include theory and lab practice.

Students will learn about computer components, their roles and how they function, what an operating system is and why different ones exist. They’ll learn about network topology and the various resources available on the Internet such as domain names and DNS, routers, firewalls and wireless. Students will also learn about computer security and viruses, and how to stay on alert to prevent break ins.

For the Computer Science part of the course, they’ll begin with the basics – algorithms and programming structures such as conditions, loops and procedures. Next they will proceed to discover the basic data structures such as lists, stacks and hashes. Some more advanced topics will include pattern recognition and regular expressions.

One of the things middle schoolers are expected to use in the course of their studies but don’t really get an opportunity to learn and master are the spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. In this course, instructors will delve into how to use spreadsheets to organize scientific and financial data and manipulate it using formulas. Through building some simple but practical spreadsheet applications, students will acquire some basic financial literacy skills such balancing a checkbook and calculating a loan payment.

To receive more information about the curriculum and schedule, please email Ashley(azinchuk@topbananaeducation.org), call 617-795-1557 or visit the website www.topbananaeducation.org