Week 1: data types, variables, input, output
Introduction
This class starts at the beginning and assumes that you know nothing about programming. If you have taken AP Computer Science in high school, or have a fair amount of programming experience, then you should come talk to me during the first week of class. We may decide that it would be better for you to skip this class and start instead with either CS31 or CS35.
My name is Lisa Meeden, and I am teaching the MWF 9:30-10:20 section of CS21. This is the first course in Computer Science (CS) at Swarthmore College. I’ve been teaching at Swarthmore for over 25 years, and CS21 is one of my favorite courses to teach. As an undergraduate I attended Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school in Iowa. At the time, Grinnell didn’t have a Computer Science major, so I was a math major. As a graduate student I attended Indiana University and studied Computer Science and Cognitive Science.
To do this week
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Attend your assigned lab session, on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
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During your lab session, start working on Lab 0, which is due Saturday night.
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If you forget your password, use our password service site.
Key terms
What is a computer? A machine that stores and manipulates data under the control of a program.
What is computer science? The study of what can be computed.
What is a program? Detailed instructions written in a programming language for telling a computer exactly what to do.
What is an algorithm? An algorithm gives a step-by-step description of how to solve a problem.
Much of this class will be about how to design algorithms and then how to implement algorithms in the Python programming language.