[Edu-sig] Who is teaching Python??

[Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.]

Well, I have been teaching Perl to Middle School Students in an after-school, one hour per week
computer club setting.  I've been doing that since 1998.  You can see some discussion of my experiences
doing that and the hand-outs on:

http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/

under the "Pearls of Perl" links, the Newsletter links, and the Mars Simulation links.

This year I am doing a similar thing but with Python.  I have about 12 students in one club now
and I expect to have another group beginning in February.

The considerations for middle school are definitely different than for college although the
college summer students who are part of the Fermilab summer program where I work have
benefitted from the "Pearls of Perl" document as they often use Perl in their summer assignments.

This relates to the student assignment styles that are being discussed in a different thread as well.

It also relates to the importance of the topics being fairly directly connected to other parts of the
middle school curriculum which is why our sessions focus on writing Perl (or Python) as a "Language
Art" and work toward the students being able by the end of the club sessions to write their own story in Perl or Python in the style of an Adventure Game, Role Playing Game, or Choose Your Own Adventure type story.  This integrates the Computer Club sessions into the overall focus of the curriculum around literacy which is a key element of the curriculum at the Middle School
level.

--David

Nora Wirtschafter wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I am teaching Python at Widener University, Chester, PA, in CSCI 131, an elective science course for non-computer science majors.
>
> I am interested in knowing what other colleges, two- or four-year, are using Python as a teaching language.  Is Python offered at different levels in the curriculum? Computer Science majors at Widener use C as their beginning language; what language do your CS majors use as a start?  I am also interested in what texts you find appropriate (I have developed my own materials.)
>
> Thank you for any responses.
>
> Nora W. Wirtschafter, Instructor
> Widener University
> nww0002@mail.widener.edu

--
Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.
djrassoc01@mindspring.com
http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/