EBoard 01: Getting Started (Section 2)
Approximate overview
- Lots of administrative stuff, including attendance
- What is “computer science”?
- A group activity, more or less
- Debrief on activity (possibly continued on Friday)
Administrative stuff
Warning! You are being recorded (and transcribed) (provided the technology
is working correctly).
- Please take a playing card, if you didn’t already.
- You may also wish to take a mask.
- Sit where you wish.
Introductory Notes
- Hi, I’m Sam (or SamR).
- Our class mentor is Ishita Sarraf.
- Ishita will introduce themselves.
- Ishita has never dealt with Sam before. Ishita may be doomed.
- The class Web site is at
https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC151/2025Sp/.
- I will email you the link.
- The class Web site is (always) a work in progress.
- CSC-151 is an introductory course in computer science.
- You can succeed (and even excel) with no prior experience.
- We approach material differently than many other intro courses;
prior experience may help, but it may also hinder. For example,
we will not let you re-assign variables. (Don’t worry if you
don’t know what that means.)
- CSC-151 is a community. We come from multiple cultures and backgrounds.
Treat each other with respect and appreciate what each person can contribute.
- We will return to this issue and the associated learning outcomes
throughout the semester.
- I type our online class notes in a format called “markdown”. You should
find it relatively readable. It permits me to make “nice” Web pages.
(This depends on what you think of as “nice”.)
- Isn’t this beautiful?
- Sam: Don’t forget to show off today’s eboard.
- Don’t just rely on my notes; There is good evidence that taking
your own notes helps you learn.
- I will record our class sessions (audio, mediocre transcript, and
pointless video) using Teams and Otter.ai. You will be able to find the
recordings on Teams.
Other introductory stuff
- We provide supplies in this classroom to support you in working
and learning.
- Small cards to serve as flashcards, which are a good learning technique.
- Also large post-it pads that are gridded.
- And pens.
- And masks.
- On that note … a friendly reminder that Grinnellians are returning
from around the world and bringing viruses and bacteria back with them.
- I prefer to have you book office hours. First priority in any time
slot goes to those who book. https:/bit.ly/book-samr
- Office hours are not yet available.
- You can also DM me on Teams to arrange office hours (or email me, or
talk to me after class).
- You’ll learn more introductory stuff when you read the syllabus.
Apologies
- I am old. My hearing is not great, even with hearing aids.
- Our Web site is not as up to date as I’d like.
- I am traditionally bad at names+faces. I will be worse with masks. It
will take me some time to learn your names.
- I experienced a significant loss in the fall and am still not back to
normal. I expect to be less on top of things than I’d like.
- UH: U need Help to deal with Sam.
- Sam has no life and will respond to emails and Teams Messages at odd
hours.
- Sam is snarky. Snark is love spelled strangely.
- More to come ….
Upcoming activities
Guidelines
- You can earn “tokens” (more info follows) for attending designated
academic events or supporting your classmates in their pursuits.
- Attend (or watch recording within a day or so) and record a one-paragraph
reflection within three days afterwards.
- Only those activities that I list count.
- But you can suggest others.
- Links might appear in the Announcements channel on MS Teams.
- Unless otherwise specified, each activity earns one token.
Scholarly
- Wednesday, 2025-01-22, 6:00–7:30 p.m., JRC 101.
Aaron Robertson on the theme “Black Utopianism and the Struggle for Historical Memory.
- Buffet dinner available beforehand, starting at 5:15 p.m.
- Thursday, 2025-01-30, 11:00 a.m.–noon, JRC 101.
Scholars’ Convocation: The Once and Future Grinnell College.
Artistic
- Thursday, 2025-01-23, 4:00–6:00 p.m., Bucksbaum 131 (Grinnell College
Museum of Art).
Opening Reception: Everything Left Unsaid.
Multicultural
- Saturday, 2025-02-01, 1:00–10:00 p.m., Harris Concert Hall.
Lunar New Year Celebration.
Peer
Musical, theatric, sporting, and academic events involving this section’s
students are welcome.
Wellness
- Tuesday, 2025-01-28, 12:15–12:50 p.m., GCMoA.
Yoga in the Museum.
- Tuesday, 2025-01-28, 4:30–6:30 p.m., Wellness Yoga.
- Tuesday, 2025-01-28, 7:30–9:00 p.m., Harris Concert Hall.
Queer Stompede
Misc
- Thursday, 2025-01-23, 4:00–5:00 p.m., Noyce 3821.
Summer CS MAPs and 299s
- Tea beforehand in the CS Commons.
- Thursday, 2025-01-23, 7:00–8:00 p.m., Noyce 2022.
Summer Research Opportunities.
- Thursday, 2025-01-30, 4:00–5:00 p.m., Noyce 3821.
CS Major Declaration Info Session.
- Tea beforehand in the CS Commons.
Other good things
These do not earn tokens, but are worth your consideration.
- Wednesday, 2025-01-22, 5:30–7:30 p.m., Darby.
Women’s Basketball vs. Monmouth.
- Wednesday, 2025-01-22, 7:30–9:30 p.m., Darby.
Men’s Basketball vs. Monmouth.
- Saturday, 2025-02-01, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., Field House.
Grinnell Track and Field Invitational.
Upcoming work
Attendance
- Sam will (attempt to) call you by first name.
- You will respond with
- “Hi, my name is FIRST LAST. (PROPER SURNAME)
- (Optional pronouns.)
- I prefer to be called NAME.
- If you must address me by last name, please call me
Mr./Ms./Mx./Srta./Sr./etc. LAST NAME san/etc.
- This semester , I am excited about ….
- Optionally, ask me a question about the class. You’ll also have
many more chances in the future.
- Note: For the first few weeks of class, please say your name each time
you ask or answer a question.
Excited About
- Teaching and mentoring this class.
- Taking a CS class. (Or sucking up to my CS faculty.) [x5]
- Taking an econ class. [x2]
- Tennis Season. [x4]
- February. Raspberries!
- Spring coming in three months or so. [x2]
- All of my courses. [x5]
- Pella Tulip festival. (About 30 minutes from here. Parades. Quilt
shows. Really awesome baked goods. And tulips, because the people in
Pella are way too enamored of their Dutch ancestry (and haven’t
studied economics?).)
- The weather.
- Less reading.
- Longer days / more sunlight
- New People
- Swim season
- Baseball
- 3D PS1 animations
Q&A
- How does DrRacket differ from Scamper? They are both implementations of
the Scheme programming language. DrRacket (which we’ll use in this class)
is a desktop-based implementation with twenty years of background and
many developers and a robust interactive development environment. Scamper
(which was used last semester) is a Web-based implementation with two years
of background and one develper at Grinnell and an iffy interactive
developement environment. But it does some cool things that DrRacket doesn’t.
- Why do we use Scheme/DrRacket in this class? We started using Scheme about
twenty-eight years ago (before I came to Grinnell) and we revisit that
decision regularly. We like Scheme because (a) it has a simple syntax,
which makes it easier to learn; (b) almost no one has seen it, which means
that we have a more level playing field for students; (c) it has a very
different model than many people are used to, but it’s a model we think
is important (when we first started using Scheme, no one though the
functional model was all that useful; now most modern languages have a
functional component, many emphasizing it); (d) it’s one of the few
languages in which you can write code that someone might call “beautiful”.
We use DrRacket as our Scheme implementation because it’s a robust
implementatIon.
- What does a citation look like for coding? Like any other citation, but
I’m okay with casual forms. Just a URL is fine. A full MLA cite is fine,
but I wouldn’t recommend it. A bit narrative never hurts “copied most of
this from URL, then changed the variable names” A full MLA cite is fine,
but I wouldn’t recommend it. A bit narrative never hurts “copied most of
this from URL, then changed the variable names”.
- Do I have to cite looking up syntax? No.
- What’s Sam’s favorite thing about teaching 151? Exposing students to the
wonders of CS! Playing with image making. Scheme!
- Can we get help from friends who took the course in previous semesters?
Sure, as long as you cite them.
- Will it make a difference that they learned in Scamper rather than DrRacket?
It shouldn’t. There are a few other difference of opinion on how we teach
Scheme between faculty, so they may suggest you use techniques that I
dislike. We’ll get by.
What is computer science?
- Computer science is the study of algorithms and data structures
- Algorithms: Sets of (unambiguous) instructions.
- Data Structures: Ways to organize information.
- We study algorithms by …
- writing algorithms to accomplish certain tasks.
(E.g., Organizing or searching information.)
- identify problems
- generalize / simplify
- write instructions that allow “you” to solve them
- analyzing their efficacy.
- writing systems that implement those instructions (e.g., hardware
or languages).
- considering their effects on individuals or society.
- We study data structures in similar ways.
- Most of this class will be writing and thinking about sets of
instructions in an artificial language (aka a programming language).
- We use an artificial language because artificial languages
can be designed to be less ambiguous. (Also easier for the
computer to follow.)
Exercise
Practice writing algorithms!
- Form a group with other people with the same card number. (E.g.,
all the fours go together.)
- Write instructions so that Sam can make a sunflower butter and
banana sandwich using the box o’ sandwich supplies.
- Assume that Sam is clueless. It’s likely to be a good assumption.
- Apologies for the potential food waste.
- Some restrictions and opportunities.
- You should try to limit food waste.
- You should try to limit mess.
- You may not look at the bread or the sunflower jar.
- You can assume the bread has either a plastic clip or a twist-tie.
(You don’t know which.)
- You can assume I understand things like “grab” and “left hand”.
- I’m already wearing the apron and the “table” is already covered
by the table cloth.
- Everything is out of the box.
Debrief
- Damn! My instructor is clueless. Or my instructor will do anything for a
laugh.
- We need to know what the capabilities of the “computer” are.
- It’s easier to write instructions if we can watch what happens step by
step.
- Things will go wrong; assumptions don’t always match. When that happens,
laugh.
- We do better in groups than alone.