COURSE NUMBER: MBA294.9

COURSE TITLE: Python for Beginners

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1

INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD: Cort Worthington

STUDENT ORGANIZER: Patrick Ford

E-MAIL ADDRESS: patrick_ford@mba.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Wednesdays 6:00 – 8:00 PM during Spring A

2/1, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 3/1, 3/8

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT: Experiential, individualized learning using free and award-winning Code Academy website

REQUIRED READINGS: Code Academy tutorial readings

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:  Attendance-based. Students cannot miss more than 2 classes.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

No programing experience required, AND we can accommodate any skill level willing to teach themselves python using Code Academy resources.

Want to gain some real coding skills? In this course we'll be learning by doing – bypassing theory and moving straight into learning basic coding. We'll focus on Python – universally recognized as a great (if not the best) language for beginners. Python is great because it:

· is comprehensive and ubiquitous (Google, Facebook, YouTube all use Python as part of their code)

· uses syntax much easier to understand for beginners than most coding languages

· has tons of online resources for learning (especially Code Academy, our free learning platform)

· teaches syntax and skills easily transferrable to other coding languages

It won't matter how fast or slow you pick it up since you will go at your own pace. We'll be using a free web-based learning platform, code academy, as the basis for our learning. Class time will be devoted almost exclusively to the code academy learning. Applying what you learn can happen very fast in very useful ways! Patrick, the student organizer, did the intro python code academy module this summer and is already writing python programs that he's incorporating into his part-time nonprofit consulting work.

Learning Objectives:

· Setting up and running python on your computer

· Understand basic coding syntax

· Understand basic value types such as integers, strings, and floats

· Understand difference between lists, dictionaries, and values

· Understand and use for loops

· Defining programs within code

· Write basic programs

· Save code on github or other online repositories

· Optional - CSV and large data manipulation and analysis