Module 1 - Basics Primitives

Basic ideas of types, values, arithmetic and logical operators, sequential execution, variables, and assignment statements.

Before the week begins

• Print out consent forms
• Finalize office hours

Major Topics

• Basic values in Python (integers, floats, booleans, strings, and None)
• Idea of types
• Basic math operators (+, -, /, *, ** ,%)
• Basic comparison operators (<=, >=, <, >, ==, !=)
• Basic logic operators (and, or, not)
• Creating/using variables
• Statements vs. expressions
• Tracing

Materials

• week1_day1_Values.pptx
• week1_day2_Variables.pptx

Due This Week:

• Module 0 quizzes and programming problems
• Survey 0

Graded This Week

N/A

Student Difficulty

• Low - few questions asked in class

Module 1 - Staff Meeting

Agenda:

• TA Training

  • Discussion of “What not to do”

  • Working on a whiteboard, make a list of “what makes a good/bad TA”

• Resolve practical questions

• First activity for grading “Python Installation”

  • Simple binary grading: from the screenshot, do you believe that they have Spyder and a programmer-friendly editor installed?

  • Your grading assignment will be released on Saturday morning

  • You will have until Feb 9 to return all the grades

  • Expectation: should take less than 30 minutes

• Looking forward:

  • Reading error messages (stack traces)

  • More about strings (quoting character, multiline strings)

  • String operations (indexing, subscripting)

  • Calling String methods (calling methods, e.g., title, upper, strip, find)

  • Calling functions (e.g., int, float, round)

  • First project: Turtle Art (make a picture in turtle graphics, be familiar with the API)

Things to Resolve:

• In-class procedures

  • Material starts relatively easy, but does escalate

  • First and foremost, pay attention for student questions

  • Keep talking between TAs to a reasonable minimum

  • Please sit throughout the room

• TA Project 1 submissions are due before the next Staff Meeting

• Feedback reports are due next week

Training Materials:

• Equity of Access

  • Only TA when on the clock

  • Handling raised hands

  • Equity reviews

• Conflict of Interest

• FERPA

• Mandatory Reporting

• “Some parts of TAing you learn by doing; we’ll do our best to prepare you, but you won’t understand the full implications until you have seen what we’re talking about first-hand.”

• Next week: Basic Learning Sciences

Grading Reminders:

N/A

Lessons

Lesson 6- Console IO

Summary: Programs take input (such as from keyboards or sensors) and then output to the user (such as through monitors or printers).

Learning Objectives:

• Use the “input” function to retrieve input from the user
• Use the “print” function to display data to the user
• Identify possible outputs of a program (printing, graphics, robots)
• Identify possible inputs to a program (keyboard, mouse, files, sensors)
• Explain the necessity of “print” vs. debugging tools

Activities:

• Lesson: Console IO
• Quiz: Console IO
• Programming: Console IO

Misconceptions: None listed so far

Lesson 7- Values

Summary: Data is stored in computer’s memory as values.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the purpose of values
• Identify a literal value

Activities:

• Lesson: Values
• Quiz: Values

Misconceptions: None listed so far

Lesson 8- Types

Summary: Every value has a type, which determines what the data can do. The five basic types in Python are Strings, Floats, Integers, Booleans, and None.

Learning Objectives:

• List the types
• Write syntactically correct String, Float, Integer, Boolean, and None values
• Identify the type of a literal value
• Compare and contrast types
• Define the types
• Define the idea of a type

Activities:

• Lesson: Types
• Quiz: Types
• Programming: Types

Misconceptions: None listed so far

Lesson 9- Arithmetic Operations

Summary: Mathematical operators like +, -, and * can be used to combine mathematical values.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the type of an arithmetic expressions
• Write a mathematical expression that uses +, -, *, **, /
• Describe the limitations of the basic operators with regards to their number of parameters

Activities:

• Lesson: Arithmetic
• Quiz: Arithmetic
• Programming: Arithmetic

Misconceptions: None listed so far

Lesson 10- Conditional Operations

Summary: Logical operators like >, ==, and “or” can be used to combine any kind of values to ask True/False questions.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the type of a conditional expressions
• Describe the limitations of the basic conditional operators with regards to their number of parametsr
• Write an equivalency expression using different equality operators
• Write a complex conditional with logic operators
• Simplify a boolean equivalency check
• Write a logical expression that uses AND, OR, NOT

Activities:

• Lesson: Conditionals
• Quiz: Conditionals
• Programming: Conditionals

Misconceptions:

• Students think that OR and AND are distributive (a == 5 or 6), even though they are not.

Lesson 11- Variables

Summary: Variables store values so that they can be used later in the program. Variables are created and updated using assignment statements.

Learning Objectives:

• Write a program that creates/reads/updates variables
• Identify valid and invalid names in python
• Identify the type of a variable
• Differentiate between algebraic variables and programming variables
• Write an assignment that involves literal values
• Write an assignment that involves variables
• Write an assignment that involves expressions
• Write an assignment that updates a variable

Activities:

• Lesson: Variables
• Quiz: Variables

Misconceptions:

• Students often confuse algebraic equivalence with assignment statements.

Lesson 12- Tracing

Summary: Variables store values so that they can be used later in the program. Variables are created and updated using assignment statements.

Learning Objectives:

• Trace the value of a variable over the execution of a program
• Identify the lifetime (e.g., creation point) of a variable

Activities:

• Lesson: Tracing
• Quiz: Tracing
• Programming: Tracing

Misconceptions:

• Students often confuse algebraic equivalence with assignment statements.

Lesson 13- Statements and Expressions

Summary: A program is composed of statements, such as an assignment statement. Those statements can be built up out of expressions, which combine values, variables, and operators. The order of these statements and expressions are definite.

Learning Objectives:

• Predict the output of a multi-line program
• Order multiple statements correctly
• Describe how programs are executed in a sequence
• Trace the values of multiple variables in a program
• Identify an expression
• Identify the type of an expression
• Write syntactically correct values that incorporate complex expressions

Activities:

• Lesson: Statements and Expressions
• Quiz: Statements and Expressions
• Programming: Statements and Expressions

Misconceptions: None listed so far