[Edu-sig] Python Teaching Texts for non-computer types
Luby Liao
liao@sandiego.edu
Fri, 7 Dec 2001 15:17:57 -0800
Nora, contact Petra at Petra_Recter@prenhall.com. She might be
interested. cheers, Luby
> Christine --
>
> I, too, had great difficulty in finding a book with the kind of teaching material I want. Therefore, I ended up writing a book that I have now used for three semesters and am pleased with. I'm still in the process of trying to get it published by a major publishing company because the editors feel that there is not a market, and I would prefer not to self publish at this point.
>
> My text includes presentation of a concept, then examples (often in a FULL program, not just a program section), review exercises and a number of student programming assignments at the end of each chapter. Concepts build from chapter to chapter, so it really is a teaching text rather than a reference book. It is certainly not an all-inclusive Python tome, but the content is quite teachable in a semester.
>
> If I find a publisher who thinks the product is marketable, I will certainly let you know.
>
> Nora
>
>
> << Original message attached >>
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Original Email
> From: Christine Shannon <shannon@centre.edu>
> Sent: 12/06/2001 01:23 PM
> To: edu-sig@python.org
> Subject: [Edu-sig] Who is teaching Python
>
>
>
> At Centre College we have been teaching Python as the first programming
> language for the past three semesters with very good results. I will be
> leading a Birds-of-a-Feather session on it at the SIGCSE meeting this
> year in Northern KY.
>
> Our students run the gamut from computer science majors to math and
> science majors who are taking this for their major to fine arts majors
> who are exploring. They learn enough about object oriented programming
> so that those who go on to Data Structures are able to make a good
> transition to Java.
>
> The text book situation is a problem. I have use three different ones
> so far and have not really been satisfied with any of them. The level
> is either too elementary or they are written as though this is at least
> a second programming language for the reader. Most of the on-line
> documentation is very good but students usually want a book.
>
> Christine Shannon