Project Files
- Project Overview: GarvinTunes
- gtunes Library
- Test Tracks
- Album: Jack Rabbit – Down the Rabbit Hole
- Album: Suspicious Minds – Trust Issues
- Album: Neon Wave – Self-Titled
- Album: Neon Wave – Synrise
- Album: Neon Fires – Eleven Eleven
- Album: Stasis – How We Act When We’re Alone
This is a challenging course, covering the fundamentals of programming (program structure, flow control and basic data structures) as well as environmental and career-related topics related to computer science.
We will be using the Python 3 Tutorial on this site to cover the programming aspect of this course, supplemented by other non-programming materials (algorithm design, pseudocode, flowcharts) as indicated. I’m in the process of changing it from a topic-as-a-unit approach to a more introduce-topics-as-a-spiral approach, so bear with me.
Prefer to learn from video tutorials? Try some of these series. Note that I have not watched all of them, so they may not cover 100% of this course, but they should provide a great starting point.
- KidsCanCode: Learning to Code with Python
- ProgrammingKnowledge: Python Tutorial For Beginners
- CS Dojo: Python Tutorials For Absolute Beginners
Students wishing to work ahead may find the following free books by Al Sweigart of interest. They are fantastic, easy-to-read, and full of great ideas.
- Automate the Boring Stuff With Python
- Cracking Codes With Python
- Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python
- Program Arcade Games With Python and Pygame
Students who have programmed before, or students that are sufficiently motivated, may wish to try some of the programming challenges at Project Euler.
Want to do some Python programming outside of class?
- Thonny is a great Python IDE designed for learning
- Download the official Python IDE if you prefer
- Run Python on-line at repl.it or ideone.com if you can’t install Python on your computer
Topics Covered
- History, Research and Careers
- Computer Hardware and Data Representation
- Computer Hardware: Slides | Video 1 (short) | Video 2 (longer)
- How Computers Work: Slides
- Decimal, Binary and Hexadecimal: Slides
- ASCII and Unicode: Slides
- Getting Started With Python
- Conditional Processing
- Code Repetition
- Algorithm Design and Documentation
- Video: How to Cook Beef Stroganoff (and Fight Off a Ninja)
- Video: Honda: The Cog
- Video: The Page Turner
- Strings and String Formatting
- Tuples, Lists and Dictionaries
- User-Created Functions
- Environmental Impact of Computers