The purpose of this homework assignment is to get you oriented to the resources in our class and to give you a start playing around with Python. The point here is to explore and ask questions; there's basically no right or wrong here, other than not participating.
There are three primary online resources for this class. I wish there were just one unified thing, but there you go.
moodle.carleton.edu, log in, and select our course. You should see links to the Syllabus, Schedule, and Piazza, as well as a few other things. All homework assignments that have a hand-in will be submitted through Moodle. Email me if you have trouble logging in.The Piazza. Please go to piazza.com and sign up for our course (that's CS 111, Introduction to Computer Science, Spring 2014). You should have already received an email about this. Piazza is a Q-and-A platform, kind of like a StackExchange just for our class. All out-of-class communication (except anonymous feedback and things that you'd like to keep strictly private and confidential) will happen on Piazza. Again, email me if you have trouble logging in.
Once you're logged in, click on the “Q & A” tab and look around at the various threads.
The rest of this assignment involves doing stuff and then writing about it on Piazza. Please look for the posts that I've put up that you are meant to respond to; there's one for each component, and they're all listed by name at the end of this document.
Please read the following items. The last part of this assignment is to respond to them on Piazza, so if you come across anything you have a question about, go ahead and jot it down so you can post it later.
“What It Feels Like To Be Bad At Math”, an essay by Ben Orlin, a high-school math teacher in Oakland, CA.
This essay has an unfortunate title; it was written more for teachers than for students, so Orlin plays a little fast and loose with his psycho-emotional terminology. He wasn't bad at math; he had some difficulty with one particular topic, and mistook this for a total repudiation of his abilities in general.
This essay probably describes a feeling familiar to you, if not in math then in some other subject. Anxiety can be really disruptive to your happiness and productivity, but I find that giving it a name and studying it makes it much easier to deal with. If you're facing this feeling in this class, talk to me (or another faculty member) as soon as you can! I'm here to help you learn; that's my job and my passion. I'm not here to crush you, no matter what you might think when you're feeling vulnerable.
Go to the Turtle Drawing page, and load up the file “turtle_curlicues” in the “examples” folder. Play around with the code. Change the numbers that are used, replace numbers with mathematical expressions using variables, do whatever you like. If you want to look at simpler examples, check out the other files in the “examples” folder. Remember you can always refresh the page to get back to a blank file, or load up something that you know works (like one of the examples). Think about how the code you're executing produces the drawings you see. It's okay to be confused; this is just a fun exercise to get your brain chewing on Python.
Log into our Piazza and post at least two things. Here are some possibilities:
This post is required. In the “Meet-and-Greet” thread, post a response that tells the class four things:
Responses will be public and viewable by all, so keep that in mind when you post.
This assignment is worth 25 points. It is graded entirely on participation.