Prep Class for ACSL Elementary Division


American Computer Science League (ACSL) organizes team computer programming and computer science contests for K-12 schools, organizations and local groups, led by an adult advisor. Last year, over 500 teams in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia participated. 

Currently the ACSL registration is closed, this is a course to help prep your child in the event they want to join the ACSL contest eventually.

The registration for 2025 ACSL is not started yet. It typically starts in September each year. Here is the contest schedule for 2024 for your reference: https://www.acsl.org/get-started/schedule .

We will contact you when the system is open for registration.

The ACSL competition is split into four contests, each covering a unique set of concepts. To match the given schedule and give our students the best chance to succeed, we split the course into four parts of three 90 minutes lessons each. The material covered in this course is recommended for motivated students with moderate to extensive mathematical experience. No coding is involved, but the material requires practice and will challenge students academically. During fall semester, students will take the official ACSL Contest after the third class of each part, and results can be displayed on the ACSL national leaderboard. Students who perform well on a national level may be invited to participate in the ACSL Finals following the end of our course: 

Part A- Number Systems
Students will be taught the basics of the binary number system.  All computers use 0s and 1s to represent instructions and data values.
Students will learn the concepts of number theory in bases 2, 8, 16 as they relate to the decimal number system with which they are familiar.
Students will be able to convert to and from bases 8 and 16 by using groups of binary digits.
Students will use the concepts of carrying and borrowing that they already know to perform addition and subtraction in bases 8 and 16.

	Lesson 1: Lecture
		-> Decimal System (Base 10)
		-> Binary System (Base 2)
-> Octal System (Base 8)
-> Hexadecimal (Base 16)
	Lesson 2: Practice
		-> Conversions between number systems
		-> Hexadecimal Representation of Colors
	Lesson 3: Final Review and Contest 1
		-> Review and Preparation
		-> ACSL Previous  Real Contest 1 from 2019-20
-> Get familiar with the HackerRank platform, and take a Sample Test

If you are not familiar with the HackerRank platform, you can take a Sample Test, which includes both multiple choice questions and a programming problem.


Part B- Prefix and Postfix Notations
Students will be taught how to represent arithmetic expressions in prefix or postfix notation. Neither requires an order of operations.
Students will learn to convert an expression from infix form that they know to either prefix (operator first) or postfix (operator last) form.
Students will be able to evaluate arithmetic expressions that are written in either prefix or postfix notation.
Students will use the order of operations in an infix expression correctly to write equivalent prefix and postfix expressions.

	Lesson 4: Lecture 2
		-> Order of Operations
		-> Infix Notation
		-> Prefix Notation
-> Postfix Notation
	Lesson 5: Practice
		-> Evaluating expressions of different notations
		-> Converting infix notation to prefix and postfix notations
		-> Translating expressions between prefix and postfix notations
	Lesson 6: Final Review and Contest 2
		-> Review and Preparation
		-> ACSL Previous  Real Contest 2 from 2019-20

Part C- Boolean Algebra
Students will be taught how to make logical decisions by combining TRUE and FALSE values with the NOT, AND, and OR operators.
Students will learn how to use Truth Tables to evaluate Boolean or logical expressions that have only TRUE and FALSE values.
Students will be able to use basic rules to simplify Boolean or logical expressions into expressions that are easier to evaluate. 
Students will use algebraic notation to represent complex and simplified Boolean or logical expressions.

	Lesson 7: Lecture 3
		-> Booleans, boolean operators and conditionals
		-> Laws of Boolean Algebra
	Lesson 8: Practice
		-> Evaluating expressions as True or False
		-> Finding ordered pairs that return an expected output for evaluated expressions
	Lesson 9: Final Review and Contest 3
		-> Review and Preparation
		-> ACSL Previous Real Contest 3 from 2019-20

Part D- Graph Theory
Students will be taught how graphs can be used to represent real-life situations in order to use algorithms to solve problems.
Students will learn how to draw graphs given a set of vertices and edges and identify the vertices and edges given an actual graph.
Students will be able to determine if a graph is traversable by using whether the vertices have an even or odd degree.
Students will use the definition of a cycle in a graph to find what cycles of various lengths actually exist.

	Lesson 10: Lecture 4
		-> Reading and creating undirected graphs
		-> Graph completeness
		-> Circuits, loops, and transversability
	Lesson 11: Practice
		-> Drawing undirected graphs for given scenarios
		-> Finding loops and contained cycles
		-> Evaluating graphs for transversability and completeness
	Lesson 12: Final Review and Contest 4
		-> Review and Preparation
		-> ACSL Previous Real Contest 4 from 2019-20