Here you will find much of the email that I sent out this semester. Messages that went out on Gradescope are not generally included.
Dear Post-Functional Students,
This message is likely your last CSC-151-affiliated Spam from Sam.
I hope that your semesters wrapped up well. And I definitely enjoyed having you in class.
With a bit of assistance from our awesome graders, I was able to wrap up the grading for our class relatively promptly. (I graded about half the outstanding MPs and all of the LAs.) You should have received an email message from me with your grade. All your individual grades are on Gradescope.
As always, let me know if you have questions or concerns.
Have a wonderful summer! I look forward to seeing many of you on Noyce 3rd in the fall.
Regards
– SamR
Dear HAKers,
I hope that you are well and that you are getting some time to relax this weekend.
My life has gotten a bit more complicated, and I don’t have as much time for grading as I’d expected/planned. Since you generally did an awesome job with your presentations and projects, I’m assuming that everyone earned an E, and have marked you as such. You certainly deserve some commentary on your great work, and I’ll try to get to that, but I thought you should have grades in place before I posted the SoLA on Monday afternoon.
I do not expect to be on campus this week and my schedule is going to be highly unpredictable, so I will not be scheduling meetings. Asynchronous conversations on Teams are probably the best way to go.
Regards,
– SamR
p.s. “HAK” = “Hilma Af Klint”, just in case you hadn’t figured it out.
Dear Assessed Learners,
I hope you are having a pleasant weekend. I have finished grading SoLA 4. And our graders have finished grading last weekend’s MP redos. You should be able to find your graded work on Gradescope.
Please look over things and consider what you’d like Maddy to cover on Sunday. It’s clear that they should talk about the randomness LA, the running time LA, and the data abstraction LA. But I’m sure they will cover other things, too.
On a separate note: Some of you have discovered a different way to write procedures. Instead of (define proc (lambda (params) body))), you can write (define (proc params) body). YOU MAY NOT USE THIS ALTERNATE FORM!
I think that’s it. I should be getting you MP9 and your current grade reports by Sunday.
Take care and be well.
– SamR
Dear Word Hashers,
URL elided.
I’ve added a few more token submission slots on Gradescope. Let me know if you need more.
Friday’s quizzes are now available on Gradescope.
The Hilma Af Klint Catalogue Raisonné and two other books are now in our classroom. Please do not remove them from the classroom.
Have a great day!
– SamR
Dear future makers of cloud-like constructions,
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and that you were able to enjoy some of today’s events in the too-cold weather.
Thanks for your (mostly) thoughtful responses on the pre-reflection for MP8. I’ve added some short comments to your reflections, which Gradescope will now tell you about.
View your graded work.
Link not working? Please see our Why can’t I see my grades? FAQ article for further information.
If you have never logged in to this site before, you can set your password. The login for your Gradescope account is username@grinnell.edu. (If you have any problems accessing the site, please contact help@gradescope.com.)
Wasn’t that fascinating? I know that the links had me breathless.
In any case, I appreciate your comments.
I’ll note that I would have preferred more of you to give the name, parameters, and purpose of each procedure you were suggesting in your decomposition. Certainly, I find it easier to decompose if I can just refer to these procedures. “I’ll just call file->hash here”, or something like that.
I’ve added the new questions to the end of the mini-project.
I’ve also gathered most of your suggestions into a document.
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/handouts/word-clouds
Since not all of you were equally successful in decomposing the problem, I think you’ll benefit from seeing some of your classmates’ ideas. Don’t feel obligated to use them all! There are different approaches embedded in the answers.
What else? Oh! I think of this project as having three central topics: hash tables, decomposition, and practice with open-ended projects. Of course, you’ll also have the opportunity to practice many other skills, such as recursion and (potentially) the use of randomness.
I think that’s it for now. I should be on Teams on Sunday if you find that you have questions.
Regards,
– SamR
Dear Breakers of Springs,
I hope you are well and that you are excited about returning to classes.
Our graders are still working on MP5 and recent MP redos. They hope to have them done soon.
I’ve caught up on the LAs, readings, and metacognitive reflections. You should be able to find helpful (or at least sarcastic) comments on them on Gradescope as well as answers to most questions.
I’ll be sending out your latest grade reports in a few minutes. Let me know if you have questions.
Don’t forget to do the reading on randomness (due tonight) and the pre-reflection for MP6 (due Monday night)!
Regards,
– SamR
Dear cons-tellation of 151ers,
I hope you feel more in tune with car, cdr, and cons and their effects. We’ll return to their use on Monday, when we start on the wonders of recursion.
I have received a notification that the Grinnell Lecture has been moved to the HSSC auditorium (A2231).
I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Regards,
– SamR
Dear list makers and manipulators,
Apologies! I forgot to update the date in my “send mail” script, so you likely received email that said “2023Fa” instead of “2024Sp”. I apologize for any confusion.
See you Wednesday!
– SamR
Dear Shape Shifters,
I hope that you are doing well and are making good progress on MP4. Bring questions to class!
In a few minutes, I’ll be sending out grade reports. These reports let you see what records I currently have for you in the course.
Note that we have not yet graded the redo for MP2, so your grade on that will likely affect other things. At the point I downloaded grades from Gradescope, not all of you had done the reading for class 17, so some of you have that listed as missing.
Don’t worry if you still have a few missing LAs! You’ll be able to catch up on SoLA 2.
Don’t worry if your mini-projects are mostly R’s (or even a few I’s). You should be able to get them to M’s and E’s. Make sure to talk to the evening tutors for help, to ask me questions on Teams, or to sign up for office hours.
Feel free to bring general questions about the grade reports to class tomorrow!
– SamR
Dear Talented Tracers,
Happy Leap February!
1. Finding Sam Today
I’ll be hanging out in our classroom (Science 3813) from 8:00-10:30 and from 2:00-3:30 today (Thursday) to answer questions from students. I have one student who booked time at 10:00 a.m., but other than that, it will be more-or-less first come, first served.
2. Office Hours
Starting next week, my regular office hours will be Tuesday 10:00-11:30 and Thursday 2:00-3:30. I should have those up on bookings soon.
3. Mentor Session
The ever-amazing Maddy Thompson will be hosting a mentor session tonight at 8pm in Science 3819 (down the hall from our classroom). Maddy plans to discuss tracing and to answer other questions.
4. Quiz
Don’t forget our Quiz protocol. Arrive in class. Grab the quiz. Grab a card. Navigate to a computer. Take the quiz. Wait until 8:45 a.m. for Sam to start class.
You may arrive as early as 7:45 a.m.
5. Welcome to our new class members! You’ll meet two more on Friday.
As always, feel free to DM me on teams. (Is that “TM me”? Does that mean applying for a trademark? Transcendental meditation? No, it’s just “Teams Message”.)
Regards,
– SamR
Dear Stackers of Simulated Snowballs,
It appears that I forgot a host of token events, many of which occur on Tuesday this week. I’m passing them along in case they are interest to any of you.
Tuesday, 2024-01-30, noon, JRC 224A: CS Table. CS Table is a weekly meeting of people interested in talking about CS, most frequently about the societal aspects of CS. If you aren’t on a meal plan, you can sign in on the sign-in sheet.
Tuesday, 2024-01-30, noon, BRAC P103 (Multipurpose Dance Studio): HIIT & Strength Fitness Class.
Tuesday, 2024-01-30, 4pm, BRAC P103 (Multipurpose Dance Studio): Yoga.
Tuesday, 2024-01-30, 4pm, HSSC S2377: SPARK Information Session. SPARK is a social good innovation challenge. Come and hear more!
Thursday, 2024-02-01, 4pm, Science 3821: CS Extras: Summer research. While it’s unlikely that CSC-151 students will be eligible for research this summer, you may find it useful to hear what kinds of research the faculty are planning.
Friday, 2024-02-02, 8pm, Harris Concert Hall: Weekend Murder Mystery.
Let me know if you have other things to suggest. I see that Men’s Tennis and the Swim Team have home meets this weekend. I can’t recall if I have any swimmers, divers, or tennis players.
Regards,
– SamR
Dear Beginning Image Makers,
I hope you are having a pleasant day.
A few of you have been asking about tomorrow’s quiz, which I conveniently forgot to mention in class on Wednesday. Here’s some relevant info.
Process
When you arrive in class, you will grab a quiz, grab a computer name card, figure out where the computer is, drop the card in the jar, navigate to the computer, and start the quiz.
Most students will arrive at 8:30-ish.
Those who have accommodations indicating extra time and those who feel they would need extra time can arrive at 8:15.
I will start class at 8:45. Maddy will collect the quizzes at that time.
If you finish early, you can log in to the computer, start DrRacket, and direct the Web browser to the lab. (Don’t start until your partner is ready.) You can also sit and read on your phone, or just relax and meditate (we don’t take enough time to do so).
Topic
The first quiz will be on decomposition. We will give you a compound image and ask you to decompose it (something like in the reading). Here’s an example.
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/las/decomposition.html
Notes
Normally, we will not give quizzes on topics you haven’t done a lab on. This week, we have not yet covered any quiz topic, so we are giving this quiz primarily so that you can see what quizzes are like in 151. Don’t stress about it (either in preparation or when you see the quiz).
You are new to Scheme and to the image library. As long as your answer is close, you’ll get credit. (That is, your syntax need not be perfect.)
Let me know if you have further questions.
Regards,
– SamR
Dear Sandwich Specifiers,
Thanks for a good first day of class. And CONGRATULATIONS on getting done quickly enough that we could start our debrief. Sorry about the computer problems; I hope to have those solved before the next class.
You have a bunch of readings for the next class.
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/readings/mathlan.html
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/readings/algorithm-building-blocks.html
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/readings/drracket.html
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/readings/intro-scheme.html
The last reading has three “Self Check” problems marked with double daggers (‡). You should enter your answers to those problems on the reading assignment on Gradescope. Those are due by 11pm on Tuesday. I am more likely to read over the ones that I receive by 8pm on Tuesday.
https://www.gradescope.com/courses/690100/assignments/3974526/
Like many classes, CSC-151 has an introductory survey. You can find it at
https://www.gradescope.com/courses/690100/assignments/3974524/
It is due by 11pm on Wednesday, but you should try to get it done earlier.
As I mentioned, I’d like you to read the syllabus on your own and answer some questions. You can find that assignment at
https://www.gradescope.com/courses/690100/assignments/3974523/
It is also due by 11pm on Wednesday, but you should try to get it done earlier.
You might also reflect on what else you learned from the PB&J (well, Almond Butter and Jam) exercise.
Regards,
– SamR
Dear CSC-151-01 Students,
Welcome back to campus! I hope that you had a good winter break and that you are excited to return to intensive learning. I also hope that you are coping with Iowa’s wonderful winter temperatures. A few pre-course notes.
The course Web site may be found at https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2024Sp/. It is likely to change a bit leading up to the first day of class and will continue to evolve throughout the semester.
If you’ve never been to Noyce 3rd before, it may be a little complex to find our classroom. Science 3813 is near the northwest end of the third floor of Noyce. There are stairways from the first floor to the third floor at the northeast and northwest corners of Noyce. The elevator to the third floor is slightly south of the northeast corner.
If you aren’t sure about your cardinal directions, the JRC is NORTH of Noyce (as is 8th Avenue) and the railroad tracks are EAST of Noyce.
There is no textbook for CSC-151. We provide all of the necessary materials online.
You need not do anything in preparation for the first day of class.
I’ve probably forgotten something. When I remember, I’ll either send you another email or mention it in class on Monday.
I look forward to meeting you bright and early on Monday morning!
Regards,
– SamR
p.s. Feel free to send questions via email or via direct message on Teams.