Introduction to python (in one hour!)

Authors: Thomas Mortensson, Ben Collins This project is designed to allow people to pick up the included resources and teach a basic 1 hour lesson on some of the core concepts of programming within Python.

This is very much a beginner session however it is designed to be accessible. We are targeting this at teachers who want to learn Python in order to teach it under the new UK curriculum or at students who want a quick HOW-TO on the basics of programming or python.

This session is regularly held in Bristol at the DigiMakers events held at @Bristol by the Bristol University Computer Science department. Search EventBrite and the Bristol University websites for DigiMakers for details of our next session.

Tutorials initially written by Thomas Mortensson and Ben Collins with support from Graham Laming. Thanks go to Robert Briggs for initial LaTeX support.

Session has been tested 7 times to date as of 23/11/2013.

Pre-requirements

A Raspberry Pi flashed with the default Raspbian image.

OR

Any machine capable of running Python (This guide is targeted at Python 2.7.x - much is still applicable to Python 3.x) e.g.

• Mac (Python preinstalled)
• Windows (Download python from http://www.python.org/download/)
• Linux (Search for "installing Python distro" where distro is your Linux distro
  • many will ship with Python by default), be sure to use Python 2 with these examples

Usage

This session is centred around a handout document called teaching_guide.pdf. This guide is written in LaTeX and can be edited via a file called teaching_guide.tex.

The session is supplied with a basic exercise sheet titled exercise_sheets.pdf. We recommend you come up with your own Exercise sheets as this sheet is very basic and limited in it's scope, although it can be used successfully for a first session.

Working Python Source code for the workshop is included in a folder called code_samples. You may want to download and test this code before running a session. This code also includes answers to an additional Exercise 3 which is not included in the Exercise Document.

The Exercise document is split in 2 halves. One has questions and the second has answers, this has been done to make it easier for teachers to produce handouts. The main teaching guide has been limited in this iteration to 4 pages to allow for easier duplex printing. The colours chosen should work well printed in colour or in black and white. Similarly the Exercise sheet is a 1 page handout for students and a duplexable 2 page printout for teachers to minimise printing costs.