CS 104 Applied Computing

Invitation:
Welcome to CS 104, Applied Computing, at Calvin University. In this class, I invite you to learn how to program a computer using the Python programming language. Computer programming requires careful thought and a great attention to detail, but can be an exciting, creative, rewarding task. Even if you never do programming again, learning the process of breaking a problem down into programmable lines of code is a useful activity that will help you do problem solving in other domains. I have designed this course to be interactive and engaging in every way possible. We will use programmable robots in lab, interactive Q and A in the classroom, short lectures, and online problem sets. I will serve as your guide, coach, and encourager as we tackle learning computer programming togther.

The syllabus for this course is available here.

Instructor: Dr. Derek Schuurman

Course Text: We will be using a free online text called How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.

Course Outcomes: Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate that they can:

1. Convert an abstract problem into a executable series of statements in python.
2. Use the basic control structures in python, including for loops, while loops, and conditional statements.
3. Create useful and correct functions for abstraction of functionality.
4. Use common python data types, including strings and lists.
5. Use object-oriented programming techniques, including member functions, data encapsulation, constructors, accessors and mutators, etc.
6. Learn about ways that faith informs work in computer technology

Course Practices: We will use these practices in this course to engage with the material:

• Weekly Reading Assignments and frequent quizzes.
• Engaging Lectures that cover difficult and important parts of the readings with some coding practice and POGIL exercises.
• Weekly Labs, in which we practice what we've been learning that week.
• Tests