Welcome to CSC-151-00, Grinnell College’s introductory computer science course. In this course, we will work to develop your experience with algorithmic problem solving. While we will be using Racket as our programming language for this course, you will quickly see that the problem solving skills we learn in this class are applicable to other languages and in settings that don’t involve programming at all.
This semester, CSC-151 will emphasize the digital humanities, the use of computing technology to explore humanistic subjects. While we will primarily focus on text-based digital humanities, we are likely to touch on other approaches, too.
CSC-151 requires no prior knowledge of computer science or computer programming. We’ll teach you everything we want you to know. It’s okay if you have some experience (although this may sometimes put you at a disadvantage; we do things differently), but it’s certainly not necessary.
Due to the rapidly changing world that we find ourselves in, the policies of this syllabus are perpetually subject to change. Significant changes to course policies will be announced in class in addition to being reflected in the syllabus online.
How do we harness the power of modern-day computation to solve problems? Why is computation so pervasive in this information age? What is this field, computer science, that drives much of this innovation?
To address these questions, we will introduce you to the basics of computational problem-solving: describing and decomposing problems of a computational nature so that we can implement their solutions with a computer. We will demonstrate that computational problem-solving is the essence of computer science and is an essential first step in understanding the discipline and its effects on society. By the end of this course, you should be able to:
In addition to these primary outcomes, we also expect you will take away more general skills and knowledge related to the discipline:
Digital humanities
Computational thinking and computational techniques can be applied to a wide variety of domains. At Grinnell, we have a tradition of picking a domain or “theme” for each offering of CSC-151. The theme for this semester is the Digital Humanities, the application of computational techniques towards solving problems in the humanities. Because the humanities encompass a multitude of disciplines—languages, cultural studies, and performing arts—the problems we solve in this space are necessarily diverse. However, there exists a common thread among the solutions employed: the analysis and visualization of large amounts of data, frequently textual. We will pay particular attention to this approach to problem-solving and survey its applications to the digital humanities.
Due to the reduced number of classes required by terms, our coverage of topics from the digital humanities will be less thorough than I would hope.
Why take CSC-151?
Basic knowledge about solving problems computationally is useful in careers involving every major and concentration offered at Grinnell. This course outfits you with some versatile concepts applicable to other programming languages and environments you will encounter in the wild. Finally, you have the opportunity to be creative in many ways, from problem solutions to finding new approaches to data. Creativity is highly encouraged!
Important Notices
We are also using software developed at Grinnell and may still have some bugs lurking within. Thus, you should develop a habit of saving your work frequently!
Grinnell has indicated that a 4-credit course, like this one, should involve approximately 180 hours of work, which matches some guidance from the U.S. government. Across a 14-week term (plus a week finals), that ends up being approximately 12 hours of work per week. I have not been able to get anyone to answer the question of “180 hours for whom and for what grade?”, I’ve been given the impression that I should strive for that workload for the “average” student in a course. In general, the twelve hours should work out to approximately four hours per week in class, three hours per week on readings (one hour per day), four hours per week on either mini-projects or SoLAs, and one hour per week for mentor sessions. If you find yourself working much more than the expected amount in this course, please let me know. It could be that other approaches, or better support resources, can help.
I believe that any college-level course should challenge you and put you outside of your comfort zone. My mission as an instructor is to help you manage that discomfort so that you can grow in knowledge and maturity. Therefore, I strive to create a fully inclusive setting so that we all can ultimately succeed in the classroom.
I welcome you to talk to me as early as possible about your distinctive learning needs. I particularly encourage students with disabilities to meet with me and discuss how our classroom and course activities could impact their work and what accommodations would be essential. I will also make adjustments for students without documented disabilities. However, I do recommend that you seek official accommodations. As part of the accommodations process, I recommend talking to our Coordinator for Student Disability Resources for guidance and further instructions:
You can find some additional details in my statement on accommodations and adjustments.
I also support the class’s religious diversity and anyone who needs to balance academic work with religious observations. Please let me know by week two if you will need to be absent from class for any religious holidays this semester, and we can work out an appropriate schedule for making up absences or missed work.
Our class is a community. We should behave as such. Among other things, that means treating others with respect, not only in the language that we use (no slurs, please), but also in taking ideas, approaches, and perspectives seriously. We will discuss appropriate guidelines for the class throughout the semester, developing those guidelines as a community.
The normal instructional structure of this course requires that you be present, physically and mentally, each day. However, the current pandemic may disrupt some of your ability to be present physically. I will adapt as necessary for those who must join the class remotely or who cannot attend in either way. Please provide advance notice if possible.
There are a limitless number of dimensions to diversity and inclusion, the totality of which are unaddressable with a finite set of policies. These may include other issues best addressed earlier in the semester (e.g., student-athlete scheduling) or as they arise (e.g., chronic health flare-ups). I will do my best to be flexible in these cases with the overall goal of facilitating your growth in this course. To do this, I need to receive advanced notice from you at least one week in advance so that we can make suitable arrangements. For situations that arise within a given week, I will ask you to utilize the token system (described in the evaluation section) to manage your workload.
This course employs a grading system based on mastery grading and specifications grading to evaluate your work. These systems, inspired by adult learning theory, are designed to create a “low-threat” learning environment where:
Ideally, all of you should be able to meet all of the goals in a reasonable amount of time (see the note about time and workload above). To achieve high grades, some of you may find that you have to redo some of the work in the class. Many of the components of the course have “no penalty” redos available. See the notes below for more details.
I use four kinds of deliverables to assess your mastery of the material.
Reading problems and lab exercises are designed for you to practice and explore the concepts of the course in a supportive environment. Consequently, you may collaborate on these problems with your classmates, consult external resources, or ask the course staff for questions, provide that you cite them in your produced deliverable. These deliverables are checked primarily for completion and effort rather than total correctness.
Mini-projects are designed to give you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and mastery on more complex problems. Work you turn in for mini-projects should be your own. You may consult others for ideas and help, provided you appropriately acknowledge that help.
Learning assessments are designed to demonstrate your mastery of the courses naturally measurable learning goals. You may only discuss these deliverables with the course staff. These deliverables are checked for both correctness and appropriate design.
The details of and rationale for the policies are complex enough that I have moved them to a separate document on grading.
Letter grades for the course are determined by bundles, a collection of required grades for each of the deliverable categories. You will receive the grade corresponding to the bundle for which you meet all of the requirements. All bundles list minimum amounts, you may exceed the requirements for a bundle and still qualify for it.
Note that I reserve the right to update requirements for grades as circumstances dictate over the course of the semester, e.g., if a deliverable is cut. I will always update the requirements so that they are approximately as strict as they were previously.
(Last updated: 15 March 2022)
| Overall | Readings (27) | Labs (27) | Projects (7) | LAs (28) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 21xS | 22xS | 4xR+, 2xM+, 1xE | 21xS |
| B | 23xS | 23xS | 2xR+, 3xM+, 2xE | 24xS |
| A | 25xS | 25xS | 1xR+, 3xM+, 3xE | 26xS |
Plus/minus grades
To earn a plus/minus grade, you must have completed the requirements of one tier and meet the requirements of the next tier for at least one of Mini-Projects and/or LAs. This will arise in two situations: C/B and B/A. For example, you may completely meet the requirements of a C and at least one of Projects and/or LAs is a B.
Because I care more that you learn the material than that you learn it by a particular deadline, I permit redos in this course. Redos on learning assessments are automatically available; you may try them again on the next set of learning assessments (SoLA). Redos on reading responses and lab writeups are rare. Please speak with me if you would like to redo a reading response or lab writeup.
Your first redo on a mini-project is generally free. Subsequent redos on mini-projects may require tokens; see below for details. When you receive a graded mini-project, it should include a checklist of issues that you must address to get a higher grade. Please reproduce the checklist in your re-done project. Where appropriate, you should indicate how you addressed the issues we have described.
Note that all work must be submitted by 5:00 PM on Friday, 20 May 2022. This is College policy and cannot be waived for any reason. If you find yourself needing to turn in work past this deadline, you must consult with me as soon as possible to submit an incomplete request for the course. If you take an incomplete in the course, the only work you can make up will be the mini projects.
Tokens reflect that life inevitably rears its ugly head in some fashion and ruins your best-laid plans. You begin the course with 3 tokens, and you may:
In general, you may not redo reading problems or lab writeups.
In most cases, I will charge tokens automatically. You can usually check your token status on Gradescope. The regular status reports may also include information on tokens.
You will have opportunities to earn additional tokens throughout the semester by participating in extra-curricular activities such as attending CS community events—CS Table (most Mondays at noon CST) and CS Extras (most Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. CST). To earn a token, attend the event (or watch a recording within one day) and submit a one-paragraph reflection on the event in the Tokens assignment on Gradescope. You must submit your response paragraph within a week of the event. Additional information about these opportunities will be posted to Teams as they arise.
If you use more tokens than you have, I will count the extras against lab writeups, readings, or quizzes, whichever affects your grade the least. But please try not to use more tokens than you have.
There are several software packages we use in this course both for learning how to program as well as conducting learning online.
Please make sure you can access all of these resources, and please let me know if you have any problems with access.
There is no required textbook for this course, as the material is written by Grinnell faculty and posted on the course website. However, there are some useful textbooks and references you may want to bookmark or keep handy.
Books
References
To help expedite your learning, you can rely on me, our class mentor, and your peers as outlets in this course.
The Instructor, course staff, and other resources
When contacting the course staff, please use direct messages (DM) on Microsoft Teams. While we will generally not respond immediately—we will check our messages at fixed times throughout the day—we will prioritize responses to student questions over Teams versus queries sent through other means, e.g., email.
The course mentors also hold optional mentor sessions outside of regular class time. In these sessions, the mentors guide you through practice problems designed to help you master the material and answer any questions you have about the material. I highly recommend you attend each of these sessions, even if you feel like you understand the material. You never know what you don’t know, and the purpose of these sessions is to bring these blind spots to light!
The CS department provides evening tutors from 7–10 p.m. most nights of the week (Sunday through Thursday). I encourage you to make use of the evening tutors.
The CS department also provides individual tutors as needed. If you find yourself struggling with the material, please let me know and I’ll work with our peer education coordinator to get one assigned to you.
Finally, if you would like to discuss things in more detail—–course content, more general questions about computer science, or other things—–feel free to schedule a (virtual) meeting with me, either during office hours or, if those don’t work, by sending me a message with available times.
Note that if I find that you have fallen behind on assignments or are showing difficulty on quizzes or learning assessments, I will invite you to meet with me. Please accept those invitations; they are intended to be supportive, not punative.
Peer learning
Utilizing discussion with peers to facilitate your learning is a critical skill for success in computer science. However, at the same time, you must be aware that getting stuck and pushing through challenging problems is essential for robust learning. To this end, we allow the following forms of collaboration.
Keep in mind that adaptation of pre-existing code whether it comes from a peer, myself, or the Internet, requires a citation in cases where it is allowed. Also, whenever you are expected to show your code’s output, you are expected to reproduce the output faithfully. In other words, you should not forge the results of your programs!
In all cases, the work that you produce should be your own. The golden rule is that you should be capable of reproducing your deliverable on the spot with minimal effort if it was accidentally deleted.
If you feel that the stress and pressure of the course are compelling you to violate the academic honesty policies of the course and the college as explained in the student handbook, please talk to me as soon as possible. The course’s grading policies as designed to help you manage your time in light of the different stressors in your life. I will do my best to work with you to figure out how to help you better manage your time relative to your learning goals and desired achievement level for the course.
And just if that wasn’t enough, you should check out my extended statement on academic honesty and integrity.
Sharing of course materials
Our goal is to create an inclusive learning environment where people feel free to share, fail, and ultimately grow in knowledge. To create such an environment, it is imperative that we be mindful of what we share outside of our learning space. To this end, I request that you refraining from sharing any recordings of our class meetings with others. Recordings of class meetings that we provide, e.g., recorded through Microsoft Teams, are meant for your personal use and should not be shared outside of the class.
Furthermore, while you retain copyright of the work you produce in this course, we must still uphold the academic integrity of this course. To this end, you may not share copies of your assignments with others (unless otherwise allowed by the course policies) or upload your assignments to third party websites unless substantial changes are made to the assignment (e.g., significant extensions and improvements to your code) so that it is clear that the end product is significantly different from what was asked in original assignment. I do recognize that there are times where you want to do this, e.g., uploading projects to Github for your resume or to show to friendds and family, and so I encourage you come talk to me in advance, so that we can ensure that you upload a meaningful project that does not run afoul of this policy.
ITS has released and then temporarily withdrawn policies that may limit your ability to share your work with others. I consider those policies inappropriate for many reasons. The CS department managed to convince the College to revisit them, but we are not sure what the new policies will look like. Stay tuned.
Technology
This may be your first semester learning with Teams. Things will likely mess up from time to time. That’s okay; it’s part of the process. (I can almost guarantee that if we were in person, some aspect of the technology would break. It has every other time. Usually it’s the projection system.)
This may be your first semester using Gradescope. Gradescope does some things well and some things less wel. Things will likely mess up from time to time. That’s okay; it’s part of the process. I’ll make adjustments when you have difficulty. I hope you’ll accept my apologies when I do something wrong (or at least fail to adjust my processes to the way Gradescope thinks they should be done).
I’ve taught Scheme/Racket for longer than most of you have been alive. This is likely your first time encountering Scheme/Racket. You will mess up from time to time. Believe it or not, but I will, too. (I’ll be much faster at fixing and identifying problems, though; at least I hope I will be.) That’s okay; mistakes are part of the process.
Names
I get names wrong. I get names wrong all the time. Evidence suggests that I am not just bad at remembering names, I also have some brain differencees that regularly lead me to mix up peoples’ names. I think, for example, of two of my favorite research students, one with blonde hair, from Minnesota, who also served as a teaching assistant for my software design course; the other with dark hair, from Massachusetts, who brought a wealth of background in education to my research projects. I can tell you a lot about each student (although I wouldn’t without their permission), including hobbies, where they studied abroad, what they are doing now (or at least what they were doing before the pandemic hit), and more. But I inevitably reversed their names, calling Minnesota Massachusetts and Massachusetts Minnesota.
When I discussed this issue with my family, my sons laughed and said “Dad, you get our names backwards, too; we just ignore you when you do so.” And I’ve heard from other students I value highly that I do this and don’t always notice. (The other day, I almost referred to an alum by a different name.)
If I use the wrong name for you, it is not a sign that I do not respect your or that I do not care about you. It’s a deficiency in my processing, and one that I seem unable to fix. Please accept and understand that disability, just as I will do my best to accept and understand your own differences.
My health
I had a heart attack last spring. For my health, I am trying to limit my work hours to appropriate amounts, typically 40 hours per week. I apologize if that means that I am not always caught up on my work or available at times you would like.
I will also try to be respectful of your time.
Please let me know if you find yourself regularly spending more than twelve of so hours per week on this class, which is what the College considers appropriate for a four-credit course.
(We have four hours in class each week, we suggests that you have eight hours out-of-class for readings, review, and mini projects.)
The state of the pandemic also suggests that I should not meet with you one-on-one in person in my office. Hence, I will hold most “office hours” online. You should also feel free to send me questions on Teams at almost any tiime.
Teaching is performative
I believe that all teaching is a form of performance. That performance may not always be explicit. Nonetheless, I perform a particular role, perhaps even roles. In my roles, I may say some things that seem strange. Remember; it’s a performance.
Feeling overwhelmed
You may feel a bit overwhelmed by this point. I know that I do after re-reading most of it and re-writing some of it. But don’t worry. CSC-151 has a great support system, a carefully designed pedagogical methodology, and an incredibly awesome topic. (Yes, I know I am biased.) Most students who take the course excel. We’ll enjoy this together.