[Edu-sig] A python teaching success

james at dis-dot-dat.net james at dis-dot-dat.net
Tue Aug 1 00:56:28 CEST 2006


On Mon, 31 Jul, 2006 at 11:04PM +0100, Michael spake thus:
> Hi James,
> 
> I'd like to second the request to see what your syllabus looks like. This is 
> partly because whilst I work in BBC R&D, I'm currently looking to build a 
> collaboration with Manchester University (I went to university there, and by 
> chance they're doing work that meshes with my research area), and there's 
> been questions of Python's accessibility.
> 
> If you're willing to share more details about your course, lesson plan and 
> notes, I'm sure there's other places that would be really interested...

Sorry.  I did try, and messed it up.  I assumed the list did reply-to
munging, stupidly, when it doesn't.  So, the parent post got a private
reply which I'm copy/pasting here, with some more info.



%These first two lectures use the turtle from the interpreter.  We
%start setting the scene for later ideas, such as functions and loops,
%by pointing out the limitations of typing out all of the commands to
%draw a spiral, say.

\item [Lecture 1] Getting Started.
\item [Lecture 2] Python Basics.
\item [Lecture 3] Boolean Algebra.
\item [Lecture 4] Choice.
\item [Lectures 5-6] Repetition: Recursion.

%By now, they're drawing koch and dragon curves

\item [Lecture 7] Repetition: Iteration.
\item [Lecture 8] State. 
\item [Lectures 9-10] Compound Types.
\item [Lecture 11-12] Searching and Sorting.

%They have seen functions already, but they were introduced without
%fuss, so they never felt threatened by them.  Now they hear a lot more

\item [Lecture 13-14] Functions and Modules.
\item [Lecture 15] Input / Output.
\item [Lectures 16-18] Object Oriented Python. 
\item [Lectures 19-20] Python Extensions.

% And by now, they're writing games.  Frogger, space invaders,
% allsorts.  The number of students that have become engrossed with
% programming at this point is unheard of at Coventry.  Whole clusters
% of people appreciating each others' code.

%% Plus two extra lectures on language transfer


Sorry it's in LaTeX markup, but it made it clear where comments end
and lecture topics begin.


> Best Regards (and congrats on the review!)

Thanks!

James
 
> Michael.
> 
> On Monday 31 July 2006 13:42, james at dis-dot-dat.net wrote:
> > Hi all.
> >
> >    This last academic year, we used Python for the first time in our
> >    introductory programming modules.
> >
> >    This is in place of Java (horrible first language, IMNSHO).
> >
> >    It went VERY well.  We've just had our external examiner's report
> >    and I got so excited, I blogged it and then ran here to yell about
> >    it.
> >
> >    http://blog.dis-dot-dat.net/2006/07/we-officially-rock.html
> >
> >    :)
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Edu-sig mailing list
> > Edu-sig at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
> 



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