21 Master Vocabulary

Name(s)_______________________________________________ Period ______ Date ___________________ 

  Master Vocabulary List CSP 20-21 

Unit 1 - Digital Information 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● Bit:​A contraction of "Binary Digit"; the single unit of information in a computer, typically represented as a 0 or
1
● Byte:​ 8 bits
● Overflow Error:​Error from attempting to represent a number that is too large.
● Round-off Error:​Error from attempting to represent a number that is too precise. The value is rounded.
● Analog Data:​Data with values that change continuously, or smoothly, over time. Some examples of analog
data include music, colors of a painting, or position of a sprinter during a race.
● Digital Data:​Data that changes discreetly through a finite set of possible values
● Sampling:​A process for creating a digital representation of analog data by measuring the analog data at
regular intervals called samples.
● Lossless Compression:​A process for reducing the number of bits needed to represent something without
losing any information. This process is reversible.
● Lossy Compression:​A process for reducing the number of bits needed to represent something in which
some information is lost or thrown away. This process is not reversible.

Other Terms from Framework 

● Binary:​A way of representing information using only two options.
● Creative Commons:​A collection of public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise
copyrighted work, used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that
they have created
● Data Compression:​A process for reducing the number of bits needed to represent a piece of information
● Decimal:​a system for representing numbers using combinations of the digits 0 - 9
● Intellectual Property:​A work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a piece of writing or a design,
to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.
● Open Access:​online research output free of any and all restrictions on access and free of many restrictions
on use, such as copyright or license restrictions
● Open Source:​programs that are made freely available and may be redistributed and modified

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Unit 2 - The Internet 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● Computing Device:​a machine that can run a program, including computers, tablets, servers, routers, and
smart sensors
● Computing System:​a group of computing devices and programs working together for a common purpose
● Computing Network:​a group of interconnected computing devices capable of sending or receiving data.
● Path:​the series of connections between computing devices on a network starting with a sender and ending
with a receiver.
● Bandwidth:​the maximum amount of data that can be sent in a fixed amount of time, usually measured in bits
per second.
● Protocol:​An agreed-upon set of rules that specify the behavior of some system
● IP Address:​The unique number assigned to each device on the Internet.
● Internet Protocol (IP):​a protocol for sending data across the Internet that assigns unique numbers (IP
addresses) to each connected device
● Router:​A type of computer that forwards data across a network
● Redundancy:​the inclusion of extra components so that a system can continue to work even if individual
components fail, for example by having more than one path between any two connected devices in a network.
● Fault Tolerant:​Can continue to function even in the event of individual component failures. This is important
because elements of complex systems like a computer network fail at unexpected times, often in groups.
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● HTTP:​HyperText Transfer Protocol - the protocol used for transmitting web pages over the Internet
● Internet:​a computer network consisting of interconnected networks that use standardized, open
(nonproprietary) communication protocols.
● Packet:​A chunk of data sent over a network. Larger messages are divided into packets that may arrive at the
destination in order, out-of-order, or not at all.
● Packet Metadata:​Data added to packets to help route them through the network and reassemble the original
message.
● Routing:​the process of finding a path from sender to receiver.
● UDP:​A protocol used on the internet for fast transmission of information but with minimal error checking
● World Wide Web:​a system of linked pages, programs, and files.
● Router:​A type of computer that forwards data across a network
● Certificate authority:​issue digital certificates that validate the ownership of encryption keys used in secure
communications and are based on a trust model .
● Digital Divide:​differing access to computing devices and the Internet, based on socioeconomic, geographic,
or demographic characteristics
 
   

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Unit 3 - Intro to App Design 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● User Interface:​the inputs and outputs that allow a user to interact with a piece of software. User interfaces
can include a variety of forms such as buttons, menus, images, text, and graphics.
● Input:​data that are sent to a computer for processing by a program. Can come in a variety of forms, such as
tactile interaction, audio, visuals, or text.
● Output:​any data that are sent from a program to a device. Can come in a variety of forms, such as tactile
interaction, audio, visuals, or text.
● Program Statement:​a command or instruction. Sometimes also referred to as a code statement.
● Program:​a collection of program statements. Programs run (or “execute”) one command at a time.
● Sequential Programming:​program statements run in order, from top to bottom.
● Event Driven Programming:​some program statements run when triggered by an event, like a mouse click or
a key press
● Documentation:​a written description of how a command or piece of code works or was developed.
● Comment:​form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people and which do not
affect how a program runs.
● Pair Programming:​a collaborative programming style in which two programmers switch between the roles of
writing code and tracking or planning high level progress
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Debugging:​Finding and fixing problems in an algorithm or program.
● Development process:​the steps or phases used to create a piece of software. Typical phases include
investigating, designing, prototyping, and testing
● Event:​associated with an action and supplies input data to a program. Can be generated when a key is
pressed, a mouse is clicked, a program is started, or by any other defined action that affects the flow of
execution.
● Incremental Development Process:​a design approach that breaks the problem into smaller pieces and
makes sure each piece works before adding it to the whole.
● Iterative Development Process:​a design approach requires refinement and revision based on feedback,
testing, or reflection throughout the process. This may require revisiting earlier phases of the process.
● Plagiarism:​The use of material created by someone else without permission and presented as one’s own
● Program Requirements:​descriptions how a program functions and may include a description of user
interactions that a program must provide.
● Program specification:​a description of all the requirements for the program.
● Syntax Error:​a mistake in the program where the rules of the programming language are not followed.
● Software:​A program or a collection of programs
   

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Unit 4 - Variables, Conditionals, and Functions 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● Expression:​ a combination of operators and values that evaluates to a single value
● Assignment Operator:​allows a program to change the value represented by a variable
● Variable:​a named reference to a value that can be used repeatedly throughout a program.
● Boolean Value:​a data type that is either true or false.
● Comparison Operators:​<, >, <=, >=, ==, != indicate a Boolean expression
● Function:​a named group of programming instructions. Also referred to as a “procedure”.
● Function Call:​a command that executes the code within a function
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Arithmetic operator:​part of most programming languages and include addition, subtraction, multiplication,
division, and modulus operators.
● Boolean Expression:​evaluates to either true or false
● Concatenation:​joins together two or more strings end-to-end to make a new string.
● Conditional Statement:​affect the sequential flow of control by executing different statements based on the
value of a Boolean expression.
● Evaluate:​Expressions are evaluated to produce a single value.
● Expression:​a programming statement that can consist of a value, a variable, an operator, or a procedure call
that returns a value.
● Logical operator:​NOT, AND, and OR, which evaluate to a Boolean value.
● Procedure:​a named group of programming instructions that may have parameters and return values.
● Relational operator:​used to test the relationship between two variables, expressions, or values. A
comparison using a relational operator evaluates to a Boolean value. For example: =, ≠, >, <, ≥, and ≤
● Selection:​determines which parts of an algorithm are executed based on a condition being true or false
● String:​an ordered sequence of characters.
 
 
 
   

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Unit 5 - Lists, Loops, and Traversals 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● List:​an ordered collection of elements
● Element:​an individual value in a list that is assigned a unique index
● Index:​a common method for referencing the elements in a list or string using numbers
● Iteration:​a repetitive portion of an algorithm which repeats a specified number of times or until a given
condition is met.
● infinite loop:​occurs when the ending condition will never evaluate to true.
● Traversal:​the process of accessing each item in a list one at a time
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Append:​add elements to the end of a list
● Data abstraction:​manage complexity in programs by giving a collection of data a name without referencing
the specific details of the representation.
● Loops (iteration statements):​change the sequential flow of control by repeating a set of statements zero or
more times, until a stopping condition is met
● Logic Error:​a mistake in the algorithm or program that causes it to behave incorrectly or unexpectedly.
● Simulation:​abstractions of more complex objects or phenomena for a specific purpose.
● Substring:​part of an existing string

   

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Unit 6 - Algorithms 
Vocabulary from Slides 
● Problem:​a general description of a task that can (or cannot) be solved with an algorithm
● Algorithm:​a finite set of instructions that accomplish a task.
● Efficiency:​ a measure of how many steps are needed to complete an algorithm
● Linear Search:​a search algorithm which checks each element of a list, in order, until the desired value is
found or all elements in the list have been checked.
● Binary Search:​a search algorithm that starts at the middle of a sorted set of numbers and removes half of the
data; this process repeats until the desired value is found or all elements have been eliminated.
● Reasonable Time:​Algorithms with a polynomial efficiency or lower (constant, linear, square, cube, etc.) are
said to run in a reasonable amount of time.
● Unreasonable Time:​Algorithms with exponential or factorial efficiencies are examples of algorithms that run
in an unreasonable amount of time.
● Heuristic:​provides a "good enough" solution to a problem when an actual solution is impractical or impossible
● Unde​cidable Problem:​a problem for which no algorithm can be constructed that is always capable of
providing a correct yes-or-no answer
● Sequential Computing:​a model in which programs run in order, one command at a time.
● Parallel Computing:​a model in which programs are broken into small pieces, some of which are run
simultaneously
● Distributed Computing:​a model in which programs are run by multiple devices
● Speedup:​the time used to complete a task sequentially divided by the time to complete a task in parallel
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Decision Problem:​a problem with a yes/no answer (e.g., is there a path from A to B?)
● Optimization Problem:​a problem with the goal of finding the "best" solution among many (e.g., what is the
shortest path from A to B?)
● Sequencing:​the application of each step of an algorithm in the order in which the code statements are given
 
   

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Unit 7 - Parameters, Return, and Libraries 

Vocabulary from Slides 

● Parameter:​a variable in a function definition. Used as a placeholder for values that will be passed through the
function.
● Argument:​the value passed to the parameter
● Return:​used to return the flow of control to the point where the procedure (also known as a function) was
called and to return the value of expression.
● Procedural abstraction:​Extracting shared features to generalize functionality
● Library:​a group of functions (procedures) that may be used in creating new programs
● API:​Application Program Interface - specifications for how functions in a library behave and can be used
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Modularity:​The subdivision of a computer program into separate subprograms
● Procedural Abstraction:​a process and allows a procedure to be used only knowing what it does, not how it
does it. Procedural abstraction allows a solution to a large problem to be based on the solution of smaller
subproblems. This is accomplished by creating procedures to solve each of the subproblems.
   

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Unit 9 - Data 
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Citizen Science:​scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may
not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices.
● Cleaning Data:​a process that makes the data uniform without changing its meaning (e.g., replacing all
equivalent abbreviations, spellings, and capitalizations with the same word).
● Correlation:​a relationship between two pieces of data, typically referring to the amount that one
● Crowdsourcing:​the practice of obtaining input or information from a large number of people via the Internet.
● Information:​the collection of facts and patterns extracted from data
● Data bias:​data that does not accurately reflect the full population or phenomenon being studied
● Data filtering:​choosing a smaller subset of a data set to use for analysis, for example by eliminating / keeping
only certain rows in a table
   

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Unit 10 - Cybersecurity and Global Impacts 

Vocabulary from Slides 
● Computing Innovation:​includes a program as an integral part of its function. Can be physical (e.g.
self-driving car), non-physical computing software (e.g. picture editing software), or non-physical computing
concepts (e.g., e-commerce).
● Personally Identifiable Information (PII):​information about an individual that identifies, links, relates, or
describes them.
● Phishing:​a technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information. That personal
information can then be used to access sensitive online resources, such as bank accounts and emails
● Keylogging:​the use of a program to record every keystroke made by a computer user in order to gain
fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information
● Malware:​software intended to damage a computing system or to take partial control over its operation
● Rogue Access Point:​a wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to secure networks.
● Encryption:​a process of encoding messages to keep them secret, so only "authorized" parties can read it.
● Decryption:​a process that reverses encryption, taking a secret message and reproducing the original plain
text.
● Symmetric Key Encryption:​involves one key for both encryption and decryption.
● Public Key Encryption:​pairs a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The sender does
not need the receiver’s private key to encrypt a message, but the receiver’s private key is required to decrypt
the message
 
Other Terms from Framework 
● Freeware:​Untrustworthy (often free) downloads from freeware or shareware sites can contain malware.
● Keylogging:​the use of a program to record every keystroke made by a computer user in order to gain
fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information
● Multi-factor Authentication:​a system that requires at least two steps to unlock protected information; each
step adds a new layer of security that must be broken to gain unauthorized access
● Phishing:​a technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information. That personal
information can then be used to access sensitive online resources, such as bank accounts and emails.
● Strong password:​something that is easy for a user to remember but would be difficult for someone else to
guess based on knowledge of that user.
● Virus:​a malicious program that can copy itself and gain access to a computer in an unauthorized way.
Computer viruses often attach themselves to legitimate programs and start running independently on a
computer.
 
 

Computer Science Principles 9