Welcome to Introduction to Programming
This class will prepare you for the Python industry certification. You will have the opportunity to earn an IT Specialist Certification from Certiport. See the following document for the objective domains of the Python exam.
You will also have the opportunity to earn Google Professional Certificates. These certificates introduce students to IT Support, Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design, and Automation with Python. If you complete one of these certificates, Google will give you interview preparation resources and access to a recruiter.
We will use Modern Classroom practices that provide blended instruction, self-paced structures, and mastery-based grading.
Resources
- CS1 from Carnegie Mellon University for a graphics-based introduction to Python
- CodeHS as a reference
- Project Stem for review and testing
- Replit for projects
- Learn Key and GMetrix for certification prep
Units
- Basic Python and Console Interaction: Students learn the basics of programming by writing programs that interact with users through the keyboard.
- Conditionals: Students teach their programs to make decisions based on the information it receives.
- Looping: Students learn how to write more efficient code by using loops as shortcuts.
- Functions and Exceptions: Students learn how their programs can be decomposed into smaller pieces that work together to solve a problem.
- Strings: Students use more sophisticated strategies for manipulating text in their programs - slicing, concatenating, and formatting.
- Creating and Altering Data Structures: Students learn how tuples and lists are formed and the various methods that can alter them.
- Extending Data Structures: Students learn to build more complex programs that make use of grids and dictionaries.
- Certification Practice: Student will review and practice for the ITS certification.
- Projects: Students use the skills they’ve learned throughout the course to build a project of their choice.
- Classes and Objects: Students will be introduced to object oriented practices in Python.
- Graphics using Tkinter: Students will be introduced to the Tkinter toolkit for creating graphical interfaces.