Big Ideas in Programming: Expressing Yourself with Python

Syllabus

• Week 1

  Functions and Strings

  • Introduction to the Course

    Welcome to the course! In this section, you’ll get an overview of major course concepts, and you’ll get information on the course, on how to take the course, and on guidelines for the course.

  • Working in Groups

    In this activity, you will learn about the benefits and mechanisms of working in groups.

  • How to Use the Ebook

    In this activity, you will learn how to use the ebook.

  • Introduction to Week 1

    Welcome to week 1! In this section, you’ll get an overview of what will be covered in the first week, and you’ll be introduced to Python. Additionally, you’ll be able to introduce yourself and where you are located in the world.

  • Functions

    In this activity, you’ll learn about the code visualizer (CodeLens), integer and floating point division, and the modulo/remainder operator.

  • Functions Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with functions.

  • Strings

    In this activity, you’ll learn about strings, the string strip methods, how to slice strings, and how to concatenate a string and a number using the built-in str() function.

  • Strings Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with strings.

  • Assignment 1 | Personalized Story

    For assignment 1, you’ll utilize your creativity and your newfound knowledge to create your own personalized story using functions (including the input() function), variables, strings, print statements, and function calls.

  • End of Week Reflections

    Now that you’re officially a week into this Python course, how do you feel about programming? Are there some things that you are worried about? Take a moment to reflect on some of your fears regarding textual programming.

• Week 2

  Conditionals and Lists

  • Introduction to Week 2

    Welcome to week 2! In this activity, you’ll get an overview of what will be covered in the second week, and you’ll be introduced to conditional statements.

  • Conditionals

    In this activity, you’ll learn about conditionals, how to test all conditions, how to return the result from a Boolean expression, and how to use complex conditionals.

  • Conditionals Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with conditionals.

  • Lists

    In this activity, you’ll get an overview of lists, and you’ll watch a video on how to solve the function first_half.

  • Lists Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with lists.

  • Assignment 2 | Choose Your Adventure Decision Tree

    For assignment 2, you’ll use your creativity and your knowledge on functions (including the input() function), variables, strings, print statements, function calls, and conditionals to create a choose your adventure decision tree.

  • End of Week Reflections

    Many professionals continue to have syntax errors. Now that you’re two weeks into this Python course, how do you feel when you have syntax errors? It is important to understand that having syntax errors is completely normal.

• Week 3

  Loops with Lists, Strings, and Conditionals

  • Introduction to Week 3

    Welcome to week 3! In this section, you’ll get an overview on what will be covered in the third week, and you’ll be introduced to loops and lists.

  • Loops

    In this activity, you’ll learn about various kinds of loops, primarily for loops and while loops. You will learn how to iterate through the loops and when to stop.

  • Loops Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with loops.

  • Loops with Lists, Strings, and Conditionals

    In this activity, you’ll learn about incorporating lists into loops and you’ll watch some videos on solving various functions such as count_odd and sum67.

  • Loops, Lists, and Conditionals Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with loops and lists.

  • Assignment 3 | Creating ASCII Art

    In assignment 3, you’ll have the opportunity to create some art! Using loops and characters from the ascii table, you will get practice with loops, functions, function calls, strings, and print statements, to make ASCII art.

  • End of Week Reflections

    It is often challenging to find a starting point to debug code. Now that you’re three weeks into this Python course, how do you get started after finding an error in your code? Reflect upon your thoughts on “how to get unstuck.”

• Week 4

  Lists, Tuples, and Dictionaries

  • Introduction to Week 4

    Welcome to week 4! In this section, you’ll get an overview on what will be covered in the fourth week, and you’ll be introduced to tuples and dictionaries.

  • Tuples and Dictionaries

    In this activity, you’ll learn about tuples and dictionaries and how they are used together and separately.

  • Lists, Tuples, and Dictionaries Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with tuples and dictionaries.

  • Sorting

    In this activity, you’ll learn about the various ways to sort dictionaries and built-in functions that can make using tuples and dictionaries very useful.

  • Sorting Practice

    In this activity, you’ll get lots of practice with sorting dictionaries.

  • Assignment 4 | Encrypt and Decrypt a Message

    For assignment 4, you’ll learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages and get lots of practice using tuples, dictionaries, lists, loops, conditional statements, functions and function calls.

  • End of Week Reflections

    Coding takes time and practice. At times, you may feel overwhelmed with the amount of things to learn. Now that you’ve finished the fourth week in this python course, reflect upon what you’ve learned and how to stay motivated.

  • End of Course

    Congratulations on finishing this course on expressing yourself in Python! There was a lot of information in this course, so at this point, you should reflect upon what you learned and what questions you still have!

Who will you learn with?