AP Computer Science Principles

Our grades for first quarter are in, and as a class, we did very well. It will now be my job to follow up with members of our community who are struggling.

In addition to students whose grades are not as high as they should be, I will reach out to those who have been struggling recently. We are now at the point where our Python code is becoming more complex, and it is crucial for future success not to fall behind.

Today is our last day in the first quarter, and we will use the first part of it to learn about two things in Python that our book doesn't teach us, the concept of sequence types,and slicing.

After that we will prepare for our first CPT practice, by:

1. choosing groups (1 to 4 people in each) with whom we will work on our first CPT practice project.
2. reading the CPT scoring guidelines, and using them to apply a backward design process in creating your CPT project.

Read the CPT scoring guidelines, and add a file in your git repo named CPT_Scoring_Summary.md that summarizes what is required to earn the maximum points (how many is that?) on the CPT in your own words.

This will be your first grade of the second quarter and is due Tuesday, November 8th at 11 am.

Warm-up

Write code for the body of the function below that will make its doctests pass:

def whats_this(num_list):
    """
      >>> whats_this([1, 2, 3, 4])
      2.5
      >>> whats_this([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
      3
      >>> whats_this([9, 8, 5, 11, 2])
      5
      >>> whats_this([9, 8, 10, 2])
      9.0
      >>> whats_this([0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12])
      6
      >>> whats_this([0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14])
      7.0
    """

We will get back our quizzes from last class and go over them. We will then present solutions to the chapter 8 exercises assigned for homework.

Read Chapter 9 - Repeating Steps with Strings, taking notes in a file named ch09_notes.md in your git repo.

This assignment is due Thursday, November 3rd at 7 pm.

We will start class with a doctest quiz based on Chapter 7 Exercises. (Note: I had suggested in class that the questions would be derived from Chapter 8 Exercises, but those exercises revolve around loops that print rather than functions that return values, and are more difficult to doctest.).

During the second half of class, we will discuss solutions to the quiz questions.

Complete Chapter 8 Exercises, being ready to present solutions in class on Wednesday when your group is chosen.

This assignment is due Wednesday, November 2 at 10:04 am.