CS2020 Introduction to Programming

This course teaches the fundamental programming concepts. Topics covered include data types, variables, expressions, parameter passing, control structures, strings, arrays, exception handling, software development, and testing techniques. Python is used in the course, but the focus of the course is not to teach any specific features of Python. The primary focus of the course is to teach core programming concepts that are universally available in modern programming languages. Prerequisite: None.

Lecture Hours

Lab Hours

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of CS2020, students will be able to:

Formulate computational problems and express programming solutions clearly.
Apply procedural reasoning to solve problems by developing programs.
Initialize and use variables and assignment statements.
Describe the importance of documentation, commenting, and adherence to a style.
Use common data types and write valid expressions of given data types.
Describe and map variables in computer memory.
Write clean and efficient selection and repetition control structures.
Construct programs using functional decomposition.
Organize a program into its core parts with the use of functions.
Iterate through problem solution, each iteration more detailed then the last.
Describe how the arguments are passed to the functions and results returned.
Describe the use and manipulation of strings.
Develop a logical and thorough set of tests to check a program's correctness.
Input data from and output data to files.
Trace programs using a debugger and set breakpoints.
Understand the concept of object-oriented programming.
Use Python basic statistical methods and packages in practice.
Import and use functions from external Python modules to extend their programs beyond the standard library.