Mailman 3 January 2022 - Edu-sig

Part-time opportunities for Python instructors
by Merav Yuravlivker 07 May '24

07 May '24

Hi there, My name is Merav Yuravlivker, and I'm the CEO of Data Society - we deliver data science academies to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and other international organizations. We're currently looking for part-time Python instructors and TAs, and my friend Jackie Kazil recommended I reach out to you and your list serv. All of these opportunities can be available for people who are employed full-time, professors, or grad students. We pay well and provide all the materials for the instructor, as well as instructor training and support. If possible, would you please be able to share the following blurb? Please let me know if there is anything else you need from me. Much appreciated! Best, Merav --- Data Society, a fast-growing data science training company, is looking for awesome Python instructors and TAs! We deliver data academies to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and international organizations. All of our content is built in-house by an expert team of data scientists and instructional designers, so you can focus on what you do best - teach professionals how to find new insights and make their jobs easier. We currently have a few openings for TAs, as well as part-time instructors - all of these opportunities can be available for people who are employed full-time, professors, or grad students. We pay competitively, have a great support team, and provide amazing opportunities for additional projects if you're interested. To learn more, please visit our page for current opportunities <https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s2t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lM8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJN7t5X-F…>, or simply reach out to Merav at merav(a)datasociety.com. -- Schedule a time to meet <https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lM8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJN7t5X-F…> Merav Yuravlivker Data Society, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder 777 6th Street NW, 11th Floor Washington, D.C., 20001 Enterprise: solutions.datasociety.com Consumer: datasociety.com

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a short essay about programming
by kirby urner 08 Dec '22

08 Dec '22

A common "error" (not too serious) that I see in beginning Python (and no doubt other languages, but Python is the one I'm teaching), is having a while condition that appears to put a lid on things, but then the flow all leaks away through break statements, such that the "front door" condition is never revisited. while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") break else: print("Nope, try again...") What's messed up about the above code is you never really go back to the top in the case where you'd get to leave. Rather, you exit by the back door, through break. So in that case, wouldn't have been simpler and more elegant, even more "correct" (dare I say it) to have gone: while True: # no ifs ands or buts guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") break else: print("Nope, try again...") I see lots of heads nodding, and that could be the end of the matter, but then a next question arises: wouldn't this also be a more correct solution?: while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") continue # instead of break else: print("Nope, try again...") We're back to having a variable while condition, not a boolean constant, but this time we actually exit by means of it, thanks to continue or... while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") else: print("Nope, try again...") ... thanks to no continue. This last one is getting a thumbs up, but then I'd pause here and say "continue" can be easier on the eyes. It's unambiguous where it takes you, in contrast to having to scan on down the gauntlet, looking for possibly other open doors. "What happens next" should not require scanning ahead too far. Help us not to get lost. Be a civic-minded coder. I'm thinking of a programming style that advises two things: (a) if you use a while condition that's variable, that's expected to change, then your goal should be to always exit because of that, i.e. that should be your only exit point. Even if some other criterion suggests exiting, you have the option to flip that "lid" at the top, to crack that front door, and bounce the ball out. (b) which is why 'continue' is your friend. You are showing the user where your 'break' statements are, except you don't use "break" statements, as you've given a non-constant condition, and your aim is to make that your ONLY exit point. In short: never use break to exit a while loop unless your condition is while True. Instead, always flip the condition and exit through the font door. However, as soon as I make that rule I can think of good reasons to break it. The other programmers in the room are shaking their heads. Won't we lose information, needed elsewhere in the program, if we "artificially" force a True condition to False. Aren't we, in effect, lying? That concern could be addressed. Keep all the info true, just treat the "lid condition" (it "keeps a lid on it") as a flag. Go ahead and remember the user's guess. allowed = 5 tries = 1 exit = False while not exit: # no other way out guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") exit = True # instead of break continue print("Nope, try again...") tries += 1 if tries == allowed: print("You've maxed out") exit = True continue I think we all understand the main issue: writing reader-friendly code, and rules for doing so. There's something comforting about approaching a while loop and knowing its not a leaky sieve, riddled with back doors, maybe even an exit( ) time bomb. But in the recursion world we want a minimum of two exits usually: when another round is called for versus when we've "hit bottom". Can we have it both ways? Conclusions: Lets not be too hasty with rules of thumb and: Lets keep the reader in mind when writing code. Just because the interpreter knows to compute the flow unambiguously, doesn't mean all ways of writing it are equally reader-friendly. What may seem a gratuitous gesture, an unnecessary flourish, may actually promote reader comprehension of your code, and that should be a goal as much as satisfying the interpreter. Kirby

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MineCraft with Python
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 04 Dec '22

04 Dec '22

Hi, intro: many kids like MineCraft :) probably you know/heared of MineCraft Pi https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/ But there seems to be Py for real MC http://coderdojotc.readthedocs.io/projects/python-minecraft/en/latest/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Python-coding-for-Minecraft/ PS.: a nice article (from js4MC world) https://github.com/walterhiggins/ScriptCraft/blob/master/docs/YoungPersonsG… -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://galvosukykla.lt

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update from Bridge City (PDX) aka Stump Town
by kirby urner 27 Jan '22

27 Jan '22

[ see notes for my guide to names for Portland ] Greetings Pythonistas -- One of my usual updates regarding curriculum dev from my angle. These days I've been hacking on: https://github.com/4dsolutions/elite_school/blob/master/ADS_intro_1.ipynb https://github.com/4dsolutions/elite_school/blob/master/ADS_intro_2.ipynb https://github.com/4dsolutions/elite_school/blob/master/ADS_project_1.ipynb By the .ipynb extension you will see these are specialized JSON files eager to be fed through a Jupyter Notebook renderer, with or without a live Python kernel (or Julia, or...) to back it up. Github provides decent rendering and Pythonistas such as Jake VanderPlas (astronomy, U of W, Pycon keynoter) have long used a public repo for their Python textbooks. Feed a Github repo Notebook to Google's collab.research and bingo, you have interactivity! A related example (a notebook in the wild, Silicon Forest academia.edu): https://colab.research.google.com/github/4dsolutions/DigitalMathematics/blo… The "elite school" in question (per URLs) is here in Greater Portland. The school is owned and operated privately, however the curriculum materials remain free and open source, unlike at the "public schools" that eschew copyleft liberality. Feel free to fork and remix. The materials are still evolving and are under peer review (consider yourselves peers if you feel like providing feedback). The project (3rd notebook listed) is inspired by Wordle which -- at least in my little neck of the woods (idiom) -- seems quite popular these days. Kirby Bridge City: Portland has many bridges, all of them expected to not survive the next serious earthquake. Stump Town: refers to how the city got built: by chopping down all the trees for miles around, leaving hectares of tree stumps for the user's enjoyment. Rose City: lots of roses in the spring, many rose gardens (similar to Shiraz -- شیراز -- with which Portland hopes to pair as a sister city, with Seattle hoping for Isfahan). All relevant because Al Khwarizmi (first Notebook) is considered Persian. From the web, Nicknames for Portland: - City of Roses. - Stumptown. - Rip City. - Beervana. - PDX. - City of Churches. - Little Beirut. - Forbidden City of the West.

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Python course on KhanAcademy
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 19 Jan '22

19 Jan '22

Hi, I am thinking of ways to more easily bring Py to high-school. Maybe PSF or anyhow could initiate Py coure alongside JS https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming Some schools probably use KhanAcademy's HTML/SQL/JS course and it has nice LMS features, so why not add Py? :) could adapt sth available: https://github.com/RunestoneInteractive/py4e-int (live <https://runestone.academy/ns/books/published//py4e-int/index.html>) https://github.com/RunestoneInteractive/thinkcspy (live <https://runestone.academy/ns/books/published//thinkcspy/index.html>) https://cs20.ca/ (including reeborg : ) Serbian open content for high-school programming curriculum <https://petlja.org/biblioteka/r/lekcije/TxtProgInPythonEng/01_karel-01_kare…> (src <https://github.com/Petlja/TxtProgInPythonEng>) https://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca or make skulpt based processing exercises fro JS (as current JS based courses seem to use processing for js <https://p5js.org/>) -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) https://galvosukykla.wordpress.com/

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chatbot to teach python?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 06 Jan '22

06 Jan '22

Hi, as currently chatbots gain popularity, I looked around seems very primitive https://tinyurl.com/pythonbotchatbot2020 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349574948_Python-Bot_A_Chatbot_for… (it's hard to formulate search query for "python teaching bot" -- as there are plenty of sites that "teach to make bot with python" :)) Similar for C (uses StackOverflow API) https://rasa.com/showcase/cbot/ didn't try it live (as needs downloading, installing) ps.: MathBert https://www.arxiv-vanity.com/papers/2106.07340/ -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) https://galvosukykla.wordpress.com/

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What countries have Python in official high school curriculum?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 04 Jan '22

04 Jan '22

Hi again :) we want to promote Python in my small country (Lithuania), In high-schools we officially have Pascal (for 30years) and C++ (for 10years) now -- as it is accepted in final IT/programming exam (and olymiads). I know that it is not common to have programming exam, but still if you know some (esp, big) countries commonly using it while teaching - please let know :) Thanks -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) https://galvosukykla.wordpress.com/

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