What will I learn?

Higher Computing Science has four areas of study: 

Software design and development

You’ll develop your knowledge and understanding of advanced concepts and practical problem-solving skills in software design and development by using appropriate modular software development environments e. g. Microsoft Visual Studio Community edition.

You’ll develop modular programming and computational-thinking skills by analysing, designing, implementing, testing, and evaluating practical solutions and explaining how these programs work.

You’ll also create efficient programs to solve advanced problems using your knowledge of data types and constructs.

Computer systems

You’ll develop your understanding of how data and instructions are stored in binary form and factors affecting system performance. You’ll also gain an awareness of the environmental impact of intelligent systems, as well as the security risks, precautions and laws that can protect computer systems.  

Database design and development

You’ll develop your knowledge, understanding and advanced practical problem-solving skills in database design and development through a range of practical tasks, using a minimum of three linked tables and implemented in SQL.

You’ll apply computational thinking skills to analyse, design, implement, test, and evaluate practical solutions, using a range of development tools.

You’ll also use your interpretation skills to tasks involving some complex features in both familiar and new contexts.  

Web design and development

You’ll develop knowledge, understanding and advanced practical problem-solving skills in web design and development through a range of practical and investigative tasks.