Search the California Content Standards

Standard:
Explain the privacy concerns related to the collection and generation of data through automated processes.

Descriptive Statement:
Data can be collected and aggregated across millions of people, even when they are not actively engaging with or physically near the data collection devices. Students recognize automated and non-evident collection of information and the privacy concerns they raise for individuals. For example, students could explain the impact on an individual when a social media site's security settings allows for mining of account information even when the user is not online. Alternatively, students could discuss the impact on individuals of using surveillance video in a store to track customers. Additionally, students could discuss how road traffic can be monitored to change signals in real time to improve road efficiency without drivers being aware and discuss policies for retaining data that identifies drivers' cars and their behaviors.

Standard:
Evaluate the social and economic implications of privacy in the context of safety, law, or ethics.

Descriptive Statement:
Laws govern many aspects of computing, such as privacy, data, property, information, and identity. International differences in laws and ethics have implications for computing. Students make and justify claims about potential and/or actual privacy implications of policies, laws, or ethics and consider the associated tradeoffs, focusing on society and the economy. For example, students could explore the case of companies tracking online shopping behaviors in order to decide which products to target to consumers. Students could evaluate the ethical and legal dilemmas of collecting such data without consumer knowledge in order to profit companies. Alternatively, students could evaluate the implications of net neutrality laws on society's access to information and on the impacts to businesses of varying sizes.

Standard:
Describe issues that impact network functionality.

Descriptive Statement:
Many different organizations, including educational, governmental, private businesses, and private households rely on networks to function adequately in order to engage in online commerce and activity. Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the capability of a network to provide better service to selected network traffic over various technologies from the perspective of the consumer. Students define and discuss performance measures that impact network functionality, such as latency, bandwidth, throughput, jitter, and error rate. For example, students could use online network simulators to explore how performance measures impact network functionality and describe impacts when various changes in the network occur. Alternatively, students could describe how pauses in television interviews conducted over satellite telephones are impacted by networking factors such as latency and jitter.

Standard:
Describe the design characteristics of the Internet.

Descriptive Statement:
The Internet connects devices and networks all over the world. Large-scale coordination occurs among many different machines across multiple paths every time a web page is opened or an image is viewed online. Through the domain name system (DNS), devices on the Internet can look up Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, allowing end-to-end communication between devices. The design decisions that direct the coordination among systems composing the Internet also allow for scalability and reliability. Students factor historical, cultural, and economic decisions in their explanations of the Internet. For example, students could explain how hierarchy in the DNS supports scalability and reliability. Alternatively, students could describe how the redundancy of routing between two nodes on the Internet increases reliability and scales as the Internet grows.

Standard:
Demonstrate the flow of execution of a recursive algorithm.

Descriptive Statement:
Recursion is a powerful problem-solving approach where the problem solution is built on solutions of smaller instances of the same problem. A base case, which returns a result without referencing itself, must be defined, otherwise infinite recursion will occur. Students represent a sequence of calls to a recursive algorithm and show how the process resolves to a solution. For example, students could draw a diagram to illustrate flow of execution by keeping track of parameter and returned values for each recursive call. Alternatively, students could create a video showing the passing of arguments as the recursive algorithm runs.

Standard:
Select and use data collection tools and techniques to generate data sets.

Descriptive Statement:
Data collection and organization is essential for obtaining new information insights and revealing new knowledge in our modern world. As computers are able to process larger sets of data, gathering data in an efficient and reliable matter remains important. The choice of data collection tools and quality of the data collected influences how new information, insights, and knowledge will support claims and be communicated. Students devise a reliable method to gather information, use software to extract digital data from data sets, and clean and organize the data in ways that support summaries of information obtained from the data. At this level, students may, but are not required to, create their own data collection tools. For example, students could create a computational artifact that records information from a sonic distance sensor to monitor the motion of a prototype vehicle. Alternatively, students could develop a reliable and practical way to automatically digitally record the number of animals entering a portion of a field to graze. Additionally, students could also find a web site containing data (e.g., race results for a major marathon), scrape the data from the web site using data collection tools, and format the data so it can be analyzed.

Standard:
Use data analysis tools and techniques to identify patterns in data representing complex systems.

Descriptive Statement:
Data analysis tools can be useful for identifying patterns in large amounts of data in many different fields. Computers can help with the processing of extremely large sets of data making very complex systems manageable. Students use computational tools to analyze, summarize, and visualize a large set of data. For example, students could analyze a data set containing marathon times and determine how age, gender, weather, and course features correlate with running times. Alternatively, students could analyze a data set of social media interactions to identify the most influential users and visualize the intersections between different social groups.

Standard:
Evaluate computational artifacts with regard to improving their beneficial effects and reducing harmful effects on society.

Descriptive Statement:
People design computational artifacts to help make the lives of humans better. Students evaluate an artifact and comment on aspects of it which positively or negatively impact users and give ideas for reducing the possible negative impacts. For example, students could discuss how algorithms that screen job candidates' resumes can cut costs for companies (a beneficial effect) but introduce or amplify bias in the hiring process (a harmful effect). Alternatively, students could discuss how turn-by-turn navigation tools can help drivers avoid traffic and find alternate routes (a beneficial effect), but sometimes channel large amounts of traffic down small neighborhood streets (a harmful effect). Additionally, students could discuss how social media algorithms can help direct users' attention to interesting content (a beneficial effect), while simultaneously limiting users' exposure to information that contradicts pre-existing beliefs (a harmful effect).

Standard:
Evaluate how computational innovations that have revolutionized aspects of our culture might evolve.

Descriptive Statement:
It is important to be able to evaluate current technologies and innovations and their potential for future impact on society. Students describe how a given computational innovation might change in the future and impacts these evolutions could have on society, economy, or culture. For example, students could consider ways in which computers may support education (or healthcare) in the future, or how developments in virtual reality might impact arts and entertainment. Alternatively, students could consider how autonomous vehicles will affect individuals' car ownership and car use habits as well as industries that employ human drivers (e.g., trucking, taxi service).

Standard:
Evaluate the impact of equity, access, and influence on the distribution of computing resources in a global society.

Descriptive Statement:
Computers, computation, and technology can help improve the lives of humans and support positive developments in society, economy, and/or culture. However, access to such resources is not the same for everyone in the world. Students define and evaluate ways in which different technologies, applications, or computational tools might benefit all people in society or might only benefit those with the greatest access or resources. For example, students could describe ways in which groups of people benefit, do not benefit, or could benefit better by access to high-speed Internet connectivity. Alternatively, students could describe educational impacts of children not having access to a computer in their home.