The plan for the first lecture is to get the course started. Usually I use this first lecture to introduce the course, schedule, assessments, etc and make sure all the students are able to run python on their computers or the computers from university. I introduce Python, the notion of problem solving and reading from the standard input and printing to standard output. Students have the chance to play with the Turtle module as a first way of interacting with Python.
Getting started
The first set of slides introduces the students to Python and to the notion of problem solving. Problem solving is a recurring theme throughout of course as the purpose of the course is not only to learn python, but also how to solve problems.
If you want you can download the slides or the notebook used to generate these slides. You can see more information about how to generate the slides and navigate them in this post.
Printing to standard output and reading from standard input
In the second set of slides I introduce students to print and input functions. They also learn how to comment the code. This slides give students the first opportunity to interact with python.
If you want you can download the slides or the notebook used to generate these slides. You can see more information about how to generate the slides and navigate them in this post.
Using the turtle module
If you want you can download the slides or the notebook used to generate these slides. You can see more information about how to generate the slides and navigate them in this post.
Suggested exercises for this lecture
- Read chapters 1 – 2 from Michael Dawson (2010) Python Programming for the absolute beginner. Course Technology PTR
- Ask students to draw something using Turtle and share their code and drawings
- Read and discuss the article I’m bad at math and I’ll never be a real programmer (https://dbader.org/blog/bad-at-math-programmer)
Please get in touch if you have any suggestions or spot any problems.