Basic Information

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Description and Goals

6.s090 (A Brief Introduction to Programming in Python) does not assume any knowledge of programming. It is meant to give newcomer students comfort with basic Python, or to refresh students who have programmed before, either in Python or another language.

It would be unrealistic to expect anyone to become a master programmer in the short timeframe of this course. That isn't our goal. What we are trying to do with this course is to introduce you to some of the foundational aspects of computer programming, and get you some practical experience working with these tools, so that you're prepared to use programming as a tool to help solve the kinds of problems you're likely to encounter in future courses and in industry.

Structure of Assignments

There will be one assignment each week. Our "weeks" run from Thursday to Thursday. Each assignment will consist of some subset of the following components:

  • Readings to introduce new ideas and get some basic practice with them.
  • Drills to get more practice with details from the readings.
  • Practice Exercises to apply the skills from the drills and readings in more authentic applications.
  • Written Exercises which are graded by humans and are used as an assessment of your progress.

All assignments will release on Thursday at 11am EDT, and all will come due the following Thursday at 11am EDT. Solutions to the exercises, where applicable, are available with the "View Answer" button. Clicking this button prevents you from making further submissions. Once you submit a passing solution, you are encouraged to review our solution.

Live Sessions

We will offer (optional) office hours on Tuesdays at 2-3:30pm or 3:30-5pm EDT and Wednesdays 8:30-10pm EDT. Office hours will be video chat-based, using firemeet. Additional office hours are available by appointment.

Weekly Thursday 3:30-5:00pm EDT sessions will begin with a live tutorial, reviewing the previous week's topics and/or preparing for the coming week's topics. These are interactive sessions, and you're highly encouraged to ask questions. Any time remaining after the tutorial will be office hours.

Getting Help

Just because the course is primarily online does not mean that we aren't here to help! You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the help that is offered:

  • A great way to get help is to come to office hours1.
  • We will use the Canvas discussion board. We encourage you to post questions you have. This is an opportunity to get help outside of office hour times. The first post has basic instructions for using it.
  • If something comes up that is outside the scope of normal help, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at lgo-python-staff@mit.edu.

Staff

Name Email Picture
Caleb Noble cnoble@mit.edu
Duane Boning boning@mit.edu

You can reach both of us with the mailing list lgo-python-staff@mit.edu.


 
Footnotes

1One-on-one help tends to produce better results than any other means of instruction (click to return to text)