EBoard 34: Wrapping up

This class will be recorded! Its use is limited to members of the class. Please do not share with others.

Approximate overview

• General administrative stuff [~10 min]
• Q&A [~10 min]
• Quiz [~20 min]
• “The Subject Matter of the Class” [~25 min]
• End-of-course-evaluations [~20 min]
• A few minutes of final comments [~5 min]

Administrative stuff

General Notes

• Additional office hours by email appointment. Most of Friday is available (morning and afternoon).
• Q&A session Monday at 8am CST?
• Do you want a Q&A session Friday at 8am CST? Yes!
• I’m working through grading and record keeping and such.
• Nameera says “Hi Guys!”
  • WGMC is thinking about asking the CS department to introduce a course into the CS curriculum.
  • Link in the email that Nameera will forward. Also in the announcements channel.
• If you would like something to read during break, Sam will give you a Kindle version of Weapons of Math Destruction, a book on the damage algorithms can do.

Upcoming activities

Activities

• 12:00 m. Monday, 21 December 2020: CS Table
• Play this weekend.

2020-21 Fall Mainstage Play: Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (+1 token)

• Friday – Sunday, Dec. 18–20, 2020
• Each night’s show begins at 7:30 p.m. CST
• Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grinnell-college-theatre-dance-presents-eurydice-by-sarah-ruhl-tickets-131767240363
• Approximately 90 minute show. No intermission.

Upcoming work

Mini Projects

• Redo of Mini-project 5 due Sunday, December 20 at 10:30 p.m. CST
• Re-Redo of any other mini projects (costs one token) due Tuesday, December 22 at 11:59 p.m. CST

Readings

• Reading redos due Tuesday, December 22 at 11:59 pm. CST

Lab writeups

• Lab writeup redos due Tuesday, December 22 at 11:59 pm. CST

Quizzes

• Quiz Today: A surprise [OUR LAST QUIZ]

Q&A

Can I redo a reading self-check? I clearly understand the material better.

Yes.
1 token for a redo. 2 tokens if you didn’t do the reading self-check in the first place.

Just resubmit in the same assignment.

All readings and lab writeups are now marked as having a due date of next Tueday evening.

Can I redo do a lab?

Yes. See the prior answers.

I got 0.5 on some things. Is it worth redoing?

It depends on how close to the border your are on that form of grade, how much time you have, and how many tokens you have left.

Can I redo a quiz a second time?

Nope.

I haven’t kept good records of my tokens. I know we started with five and you added one that one time you used the h word in class. But I’m not sure how many I’ve used.

-1 token for late to class (after we take attendance, usually at 8:05).

-2 tokens for absent (with a few exceptions)

-1 token for late assignments (with a few exeptions)

-1 for late reading and lab redos (if you never submitted and it’s more than two days late, it’s -2)

-1 for re-redos

I haven’t been keeping my records up to date. I’ll try to get info to you over the weekend. (I’m getting closer.)

When will we get homework redos and such back?

Sam’s grading order: SoLA, MP5, small things, MP4 redo.

Don’t forget that you won’t charge us a token for HW1 late.

Thank you for the reminder!

How do we become a grader for this class?

Survive 161.

Join the csstudents mailing list.

Apply when SDA sends out a request for applicants.

Can I still send a reflection, even though it’s late?

Yes.

We can redo labs from any point in the term?

Yes.

Did you update the counts?

Yes.

Is there a makeup for quiz 32?

Yes, it will appear at the end of today’s class.

Is there a makeup for class 34?

No.

Tell me about Monday’s “final”

Monday is SoLA 5.

If you outstanding LAs you’d to get to S, you should work on them.

If you are happy with your number of LAs, you are done.

Same form as always: Posted at 8am (Monday), due 8am the next day (Tuesday).

Sam will be available 8am Monday for normal Q&A session. You can hear questions from other students and watch Sam (fail to) answer them.

Quiz

DrRacket should not be necessary.

“Quiz for Class 34: Surprise”

The Subject Matter(s) of the Class

• EOCE: “ helped me learn _the subject matter of the class._"
• Sam as (equally snarky) young faculty member: “But how will my students know?”
• Response: “You’ll tell them.”
• Sam: I believe in active learning; “a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage”.

Side note: If the response were from the current SamR: “If you’d done your job, perhaps they’d know.”

Anyway, we’re going to collaboratively develop a list of things you may have learned in CSC 151 this semester. I tend to group them into categories.

• I’ll describe the categories and give an example for each.
• I’ll give you some time to come up with suggestions in pairs (back in the labs channel).
• We’ll talk through them for a bit.

Problem Solving

General strategies for approaching problems, computational and otherwise.

• E.g., We’ve learned to decompose a complex problem into smaller problems (subroutines) and then combine those solutions back into the broader solution. For example, in learning how to make some kinds of sandwiches, we might also solve the problem of “spread stuff on bread”.
• …

The core of CS: Algorithms and data structures

CS is the study of algorithms and data structures; ways to manipulate data and ways to organize data.

• E.g., We’ve learned about the “List” data structure, which organizes information in sequential order and which you can visit element-by-element using car and cdr.

Functional programming

CSC 151 uses an approach that we term “functional programming” and that is somewhat distinct from other approaches.

• E.g., “Functions are first-class values”: They can be parameters to other functions, they can be returned by other functions. For example, o is a function that takes two or more unary functions as parameters and returns a new function that applies the functions in sequence.

Program and software design

We’ve also learned a bit about how you build software (or at least how you might build software).

• E.g., Document your code so that others can understand it.

Scheme and Racket

We’ve grounded most of that learning in the Scheme/Racket programming language. Along the way, we’ve learned a bit about Scheme.

• E.g., Scheme’s evaluation strategy: Evaluate the arguments, then apply the procedure.
  • Some exceptions: if, and, or, quote, cond, lambda, …
• E.g., A bunch of procedures, car, cons, square, sqr, …

General skills

I would hope that most Grinnell classes teach you things beyond the basic disciplinary subject matter.

• E.g., Practice thinking on your feet (or your behind).

And beyond

Students tell me that they learn perspectives on the world from my class.

• E.g., “Computers are sentient and malicious. If things go wrong, it’s probably not your fault.”
• E.g., “There’s never a time when snark is inappropriate.”

Head on over to the labs channel, spend ten minutes coming up with at least one more bullet point for each of the things above, and stay tuned for the next set of instructions.

Course evaluation / official

Evaluation forms may be found at https://grinnell.smartevals.com.

End-of-course ratings enable you to give responsible feedback for your professors, and the information you provide enters into future contract reviews. The agree/disagree responses will be tallied to produce frequency reports. The instructor will be able to review your unidentified comments within the electronic course evaluation system. Please note that the scale starts with “Strongly Disagree” at the top. Be careful not to inadvertently reverse your responses. Please provide comments but do not write your name in the comment boxes. Instructors receive the unidentified, completed forms only after grades have been submitted to the registrar.

See you in twenty minutes or so!

Final comments

Some apologies

• Workload. It’s supposed to be heavy (College dictates average of 24 hpw), but it sounds like it was heavier than that for some of you. I’m happy for offline comments on the workload and how to make it more manageable (or comments that it was within the guidelines).
• Snarkiness. It’s who I am, but it’s not necessarily comfortable for everyone.
• Slowness of grading vs. speed of term. Looking for ways to fix that the next time I teach.
• Things didn’t always work as intended (some instructions were vague and unclear, or insufficiently tested).
• Chaos of Gradescope. Suggestions welcome.
• It feels like there are others I was planning …

The more standard final comments

• Thank you for making this an awesome class.
• Take the time to share appreciation with others. *