Course Policies

• Course Description
• Code of Conduct
• Course Resources
• Computers
• Notebook
• Homework
• Python Style Conventions
• Procrastination
• Technical Glitches
• Turning in Assignments
• Assignment Evaluation
• Grading
• Academic Integrity
• Acceptable Use Policy

Course Description

From the Polytechnic School Course of Study:

Topics of study and activities in the course include:

• general topics in computational thinking and computer science
• writing computer programs using Python 3
• the principles of object-oriented programming (OOP)
• interacting with a server using SSH
• learning the fundamentals of computer hardware
• learning how to use a desktop Linux system (Ubuntu)
• discussing the fundamentals of encryption and privacy
• programming some graphics and animations
• principles of responsive website design
• discussing the potential impacts of technology on culture and society, including robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning

This course is a fast-paced but enjoyable introduction to computer science and computer programming. You're going to love it!

Code of Conduct

The instructor of this course is dedicated to providing a respectful, harassment-free community for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment or bullying of any community member in any form.

Harassment includes

• deliberate intimidation
• bullying
• sustained disruptions of classes, chats, electronic meetings, physical meetings or other events
• offensive verbal/electronic comments related to personal characteristics or choices
• sexual images or comments in public or online spaces
• stalking or following
• harassing photography or recording
• inappropriate physical contact
• unwelcome sexual attention

Participants asked to stop any harassing or bullying behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, representatives of the community may take reasonable action they deem appropriate including warning the offender and reporting the behavior to school administrators.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please act to intercede or ask for help from the instructor or any school teacher or administrator.

This Code of Conduct has been adapted from the one at PyLadies.com and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Course Resources

This course will assume that you make use of a number of different resources:

• The online textbook, Miller and Ranum's How to Think Like a Computer Scientist
• The instructor, who will provide presentations and assignments designed to guide your learning.
• The course website, which the instructor uses to deliver content and resources to you.
• The course server, a computer that you will use during our studies, and which you will use for submitting assignments and getting feedback from the instructor.

The course website most notably includes a daily schedule for our class, online lectures that you will be asked to refer to before and after presentations in class, and copies of assignments and other resources used in the course.

Computers

You will need to have a laptop for use in this course—any Apple or PC laptop running Windows, macOS, or Linux will work. Make sure that your laptop's battery is capable of holding a charge for the duration of class or that you have a power supply that you can plug in.

You will need to install software for this course, including the MiniConda distribution of Python3. Windows users will need to have access to the Ubuntu bash app for Windows.

Notebook

Computer science is only partly about writing code on the computer—we make use of paper documents in here as well. You will need to take notes and draw diagrams as you learn our subject, and print or receive in class documents that you will need to save, store, and be able to access in a 3-ring binder. Either use a small section of a binder currently used for other classes, or get a half-inch 3-ring binder to be used only for this class.

Homework

You will have work for this class that needs to be completed outside of our meeting time, including:

• reading/watching presentations online
• reading our course text
• writing programs on the computer
• uploading assignments to our server
• taking assessments (quizzes and tests, in class or online)

It may be the case that you occasionally find yourself stumped by some of problems on a particular assignment. In these cases, you are encouraged to:

• reference the content presentations on the course website
• talk with someone else in the class about the problem and how to go about solving it
• examine the pseudocode analysis or solutions, if available
• talk to the instructor

Occasionally you will have access to answer keys or solutions for some of our work.

Finally, you will often find yourself working, formally or informally, with other students in the class. When working with other students:

Python Style Conventions for Poly's Intro to Computer Science course

In order to assist you in writing, reading, and understanding the programs that you'll be working on in here, you'll be asked to follow a number of style conventions. These include:

1. Initial Python path, the first line of the program
   #!/usr/bin/env python3
2. Initial Comment for every program includes 5 lines of code, as shown in the example below.
   """ quadraticSolver.py """ __author__ = "Richard White" __version__ = "2020-09-24"
3. Capitalization convention in code
   
   • variables and methods are written in all lower case (except if using camelCase usage).
   • Classes are written in lower case but begin with a capital letter.
4. Width of program
   Lines in a program may be up to 120-characters in width, but no more than that.
5. Indented blocks
   Blocks of code will be indented 4 spaces. Do not use the Tab key to indent unless your text editor has been configured to "auto-expand" tabs a width of 4 spaces.

We'll be developing additional conventions as the course proceeds.

Procrastination

Thanks to your intelligence and excellent pattern recognition skills, you have probably become well-trained in the fine art of "putting things off till the last minute." In many of your classes, your ability to procrastinate has served you well.

Programming doesn't work like that.

The skills you'll be developing in here require time to sink in. Trying to fit a one-hour assignment into 15 minutes, or a ten-hour assignment into an hour-and-a-half, simply will not work.

Think of creating a piece of art. Whether it's a small or large, the work that you're creating takes time to develop—there aren't any shortcuts, and there are inevitably problems (see next section, Technical Glitches).

My advice:

• Keep good notes, and keep them organized. (The course website will also be available to you.)
• Keep your computer files organized and backed up.
• If you have the chance to get started on an assignment early, do so. It will give you more time to think about the problem, to play with the problem, to benefit from discussions with others, and to ask the instructor for assistance.

I have every confidence that you'll figure this out sooner rather than later.

Technical Glitches

You can almost certainly anticipate a wide range of technical glitches that will conspire to impede your progress in here.

• You will lose work due to a hard drive crash.
• You will lose Internet connectivity at home for a day, or even a week.
• Your computer may be lost or stolen. (I don't wish it on anyone, but it has happened to students in this class in the past. You should use your locker at school to be safe.)
• You will occasionally miss class due to athletics, college visitations, illness, etc.

None of these are excuses for turning in late work, with the possible exception of sudden illness on the day a homework assignment is due, and even then, there's this thing called The Internet. Maybe you've heard of it? ;)

Plan for the unexpected, and try not to panic when your emergency plans fail. A missed homework assignment here or there won't be a problem for anyone, but a pattern of missed smaller assignments, or a major assignment that's not completed on time, will quickly become a problem. I'd encourage you to do what you can to avoid finding yourself in that situation.

Turning in assignments

You'll have a number of different types of assignments in here, most of them involving writing programs in Python, and most of these programs will be written on your computer, often at home. In order to "turn in" these assignments, you'll need to upload them via SFTP or SCP to a directory on the course server reserved for such purposes.

Unless stated otherwise, programs assigned on a given day are due that evening by 12:00 midnight. At that time, the programs will be automatically evaluated by testing software, so you can't afford to turn in assignments late. You are strongly encouraged to get your work done on these assignments early, so as to avoid any last-minute problems: the assignment was difficult, your connection was down, etc.

Assignment Evaluation

Evaluation of your work depends on the nature of the assignment. Tests and larger computer-based projects will be evaluated in a fairly traditional manner. Daily written homework assignments are worth fewer points but are an important aspect of your learning the material.

Daily programming assignments are going to be evaluated via a qualitative system used at Stanford. There are a number of different qualities any given program is evaluated on: efficiency, legibility, correctness, completeness, comments, etc. Although the correctness of your program will be established using a suite of tests, these assignments will be graded on the following scale:

Grading

Your grade will be based on a weighted percentage, according to the following scale used by classes at Poly:

Academic Integrity

In addition to assisting students with learning material, teachers are often responsible for assessing their progress. In order to do this, students may be given a number of different types of assignments: homework, quizzes, tests, in-class activities, laboratory experiments to conduct, research papers, individual and group projects, presentations, etc.

It is understood that for some of these assignments, students may collaborate with one another. Four lab partners may perform an experiment as a group and share data. A student team may design and present a project together. Students might consult each other to find out how to solve a homework problem. In these cases, collaboration is accepted and even encouraged.

In many cases, however, the teacher desires an individual assessment of the student, ie. an answer to the question: "How much progress has the student made in mastering the material?" These assessments, usually in the form of quizzes and tests, are to be performed without assistance from any other sources or students.

There are many ways that a student may cheat, but they all fall into one of four categories:

1. giving or receiving unauthorized information on tests, examinations, or other work
2. copying another student's work, either word-for-word or by rephrasing
3. using any unauthorized aids on tests, examinations, or other work, or
4. submitting someone else's work, in whole or in part, for your own.

Thus, looking at someone else's test paper to copy the answer to a problem, discussing a test problem or sharing its solution with another student, copying test problems or answers and sharing them with another student, stealing a test, stealing the answers to a test, and using notes during a test that have not been expressly allowed by the teacher are all prohibited.

The penalties for cheating vary, depending on the institution, the department, the teacher, and the nature of the infraction. Commonly, a student caught cheating will receive a failing grade on the assignment and be subject to disciplinary action, including suspension and a letter being placed in the student's file. A friend of mine who is a professor states that at her university, there are a total of ten disciplinary actions possible in response to cheating, including: "expulsion, suspension (withdrawal from the University for a given period of time), mark reduction on the assignment or exam, reduction in the final course grade, a grade of F in the course, conduct probation, written reprimand, suspension of any degree already awarded, rescinding any degree already awarded."

Use your powers for good, not for evil.

Polytechnic School's Responsible Use Agreement

In addition to these course policies, by using computers and the computer network at Poly you are tacitly agreeing to abide by the school's Responsible Use Agreement, which you are strongly encourage to read and understand. Violation of this policy may result in your loss of access to school technology, which is going to have a devastating effect on your ability to participate in this class! :)