Lecture 1 - Live Class Agenda

Q&A

• Questions on the syllabus?
• Questions on the lecture videos?

How to succeed in this class

• Lecture content

  • Watch the videos, work through the exercises before class:

    • Try to answer the Exercise.
    • If there's a way to check your answer using python, do so now. Do you understand the outcome?
    • If not, make a note to talk about this with your team in class.
    • Attend class

  • Make mistakes and learn from them. Be bold!

  • Learn from your teammates.

  • Teach your teammates.

  • Ask lots of questions.

  • Practice solving the Problems on your own after class.

• Programming assignments

  • Start early. The assignments may take longer than you expect them to. This is increasingly true as the quarter progresses.
  • Get help. If you're stuck, or don't know how to get started, for more than about 30 minutes, seek help. You can come to my office hours, Melissa's office hours, ask questions in the q-and-a channel, or go to the CS Tutors (see the Syllabus "Resources for Getting Help and Support").
  • Even if you got help along the way, when you're done, you should be able to sit down and solve it yourself from scratch.

• Labs

  • Attend lab (required).
  • Ask questions of the TA - they are there to help.
  • Collaborate with your lab partner.
  • When you're done, you should be able to sit down and solve it yourself from scratch.

• Midterm Exam, Final Project: will take care of themselves if you're solid on the above.

Labs logistics and installing Thonny

Detailed instructions for labs will be sent this weekend; feel free to go to thonny.org and download Thonny now.

Logistics for Discord and accessing Google Slides

• Discord

  • You should be in the Discord server with your nickname and avatar photo set as instructed. Your name should be green if you're in 11am and blue if you're in 1pm. If not, send me a message in #general.

• Google Slides Logistics

  • Follow the to the Google Drive folder pinned in your section's text channel (11am-text or 1pm-text)
  • Make sure you're logged into Google with your WWU universal username and password
  • Find the Google Slides document for the current day (today, that's L01 - 11am or L01-1pm)
  • One person in your group should copy the Exercises slide template that says "Team TEMPLATE", and replace TEMPLATE with your team number. Please arrange the slides in order by team.
  • Fill in the "Team Members Present" text box with the names of those who are in class today.
  • Discuss each Exercise wtih your team; once you've agreed on a solution, write it into the template on your team's slide.
  • If you have any questions, let me know: send a message in the mentions me