Learning Principles

• Go slow now to go far later.
  • Mastery of the fundamentals takes time but it is worth it.
  • If you understand the fundamentals, you can reason about any of the abstractions built on top of them.
• Your words are your world.
  • Vocabulary matters. Your mental models can only be as strong as the language you have to describe them.
  • The quality of your solution is determined by your ability to articulate the problem.
• Learning is a skill...
  • …and it is the most important skill in the world.
  • ....and like all other skills, it can be developed and improved upon with intentional practice.
  • We learn by repeated exposure. ****What was once intimidating becomes familiar and approachable through repetition.
  • AI tools like ChatGPT are shortcuts for writing code, but they are not shortcuts for learning. Learn from your community (peers, Google, and StackOverflow, even)!

Technical Curriculum Overview

Mod 0 - Command Line, Git, Github (1 week)

Mod 1 - JavaScript (4 weeks)

Mod 2 - HTML, CSS, and DOM Manipulation (4 weeks)

Mod 3 - Asynchronous JavaScript (2 weeks)

Mod 4 - Fundamentals Project Week (1 week)

Mod 5 - Object-Oriented Programming (3 weeks)

Mod 6 - Data Structures & Algorithms (2 weeks)

Mod 7 - React (4 weeks)

Mod 8 - Backend (5 weeks)

Civic Tech Hackathon (3 weeks)

Capstone/Practicum (9 weeks)