Lab contents

Contents and instructional goals for spring 2015 semester.

Lab 1 - Introduction to Linux and Python

Python as calculator (basic operators)
Python interpreter
Difference between float and int -- talk a bit about float, int (, maybe str)
Variables
Read the docs!

Lab 2 - Basic Flow Control

Boolean logic
Types (int, str, float, bool)
Conditionals: if/elif/else
Loops: while
- both while waiting for something and doing a set number of times - poor man's for loop
Basic string formatting
input()
Turtle
Keywords: and, or, not, if, else, elif, while, import

Lab 3 - Functions

Functions
- Positional and Optional Arguments
- Recursion
Modules
- import statements
- main() boilerplate
Comments and PEP-8 style
Keywords: def

Lab 4 - Lists and Strings

Lists
Strings
For loops
Slicing
Keywords: in (not in), for
Maybe range(), but I think we should focus more on for loops being used in the style of "for each"
Talk about types again -- we now have float, int, str, list(, function)
matplotlib

Lab 5 - File I/O and matplotlib

File I/O using with
matplotlib
data processing for exercises

Lab 6a and 6b - Collections (6b during midterms)

dictionaries, lists, tuples, sets

Lab 7 - Programming Competition (post-midterm lab)

algorithm development (redo some questions!)

Labs 8 through 12 - undecided

Foci

Algorithm development, critical thinking
- Introduce common CS algorithms early: binary search, sorting
  - Take a peek at the Google interview prep, programming pearls, and the Cormen book to find good candidates
- Play around with interdisciplinary themes: genetics, linguistics, physics, image processing
Earlier labs: use turtle to demonstrate basic concepts
Later labs: start building ONE final project

Possibilities for later labs

Functions as first-class citizens
Higher order functions
Lambda functions
Generators
Object-oriented?