CS 101 - Introduction to Programming

Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Identify for the following set of industries/disciplines how technology is changing the nature of those industries/disciplines:
    • Health Care
    • Political Science and Law
    • Agriculture
    • Humanities
    • Theatre and Cinema
    • Education
    • Geology
    • Physics/Chemistry and the Hard Sciences
    • Art
    • Business
  2. Describe how a computer executes programs.
  3. Create simple programs using basic programming constructs that include:
    • Use of variables.
    • Evaluation of mathematical expressions.
    • Control flow constructs including an if statement, a while statement, and/or a for loop.
    • Basic Input from the keyboard and output to the display.
    • Basic input and output from a file.
  4. Use the Python IDLE to create and debug simple programs.
  5. Identify resources that can be used to create programs for specific platforms.
  6. Identify how to use those other resources successfully to create a simple application on a different platform.

Description

This course provides an introduction to computer programming intended for people with no programming experience. This course is recommended for non-majors in order to get an overview of programming principles and techniques. This course covers the basics of programming in Python, including elementary data types (numeric types, strings, lists, dictionaries, and files), control flow, functions, objects, methods, fields, and mutability.

Learning Model Architecture

Students will prepare by watching brief lecture videos to understand key concepts relevant to lesson assignments.

Students will teach one another as they explore the field of programming and its impact on various industries and share their research in the discussion board.

Students will ponder and prove by completing the Codecademy course on learning Python.

Prerequisites

None.

Required Materials

An account with Codecademy.com (free) and access to their Python course.

Grading Policies

Students' final grades will be based on the assignments listed below. Additional information about these assignments can be found throughout the course.

Assignments Percentage of Total Grade
Codecademy Python Course Units 40%
Final Project 20%
Field Exploration 40%

Students' overall course grades will be calculated using the following scale:

Percentage Range Letter Grade
100% – 94% A
93% – 90% A-
89% – 87% B+
86% – 84% B
83% – 80% B-
79% – 77% C+
76% – 73% C
72% – 70% C-
69% – 66% D
65% – 0% F

Disclaimers

The instructor reserves the right to change any part of this syllabus at any time during the semester in order to adapt to changing course needs. You will be notified prior to any changes that may take place.

Policies

You may work with your classmates but all submitted work must be original. Share ideas; do not share code! Assistance from a classmate should be on par with the help you would expect from a lab assistant. The penalty for copying or plagiarizing of assignments might be one or more of the following: -100% on an assignment, being asked to withdraw from the class, a failing grade in the class, or disciplinary action by the University. For more information about this, please see this document on plagiarism. Please contact your instructor for the late work policy for your section. As a general rule, late work is not accepted unless an arrangement was made before the deadline. That being said, there are exceptions. If you know of an upcoming event that will keep you from turning something in on-time, you need to make prior arrangements with the instructor. As a general rule, the instructor will be more accommodating before the due date than after.