Reading / Journal 15

Wrap-Up ✏️

Journals are a combination of a few things. First, the "journal." This is a very small weekly assignment where you write 200+ words (option 1) or submit "tinker" code (option 2). Second, the "reading." This is where I direct you to read from a book, an online article, or watch a video, and I supplement those with my own lecture notes, graphs, figures, quotes, or so on.

All other assignments and lectures build upon these. Usually, there will be more reading at the start of a unit and less at the end.

Reading

Team, it's been a long semester. We've dealt with learning software packages for scraping, counting, and visualizing data in Python. We've dealt with (the after effects of) coronavirus. We've gotten creative and had to think on our feet when our internet went down, when data we thought was available wasn't, and when the tools we used (like repl.it) had unexpected crashes.

And I'm proud of each of you.

I hope that, over the duration of this course, you've learned a good bit more about data and complexity and analysis and Python's role in all that. I hope you've learned a good bit more about how to stand up to and diagnose error messages head on, how to approach thinking through small but precise programs like they're an old friend, and you've had a good chance to demonstrate that with a project of your own. Our projects were simple. We only had one "complexity point" to spend. We all had to write apps that analyzed real data and that displayed some "result" of it back to the user. They, for the most part, were...less than completely statistically sound. But they worked, and they were focused and meaningful, and that's the goal we had set out to accomplish. We could expand on that in later courses or out in life outside of school. We aren't "done," in human terms. But we are done in semester terms.

As I end all my classes, in what ways has this course challenged you? Feel free to write about this in your journal this week.

Now watch "What Can You Do with Python? - The 3 Main Applications" from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZuut1fYzQ

So have a great break everyone. Stay hydrated, keep up the great work, and I'll see you around.

Journal

Choose from one of the following two options as you best see fit:

Option One: Submit a brief "200+ Words" reflecting on the reading and/or the course as a whole. These 200+ words are expected to come completely from the student, ignoring words from quotes/etc. The format of these assignments is up to the student as it best helps them: bulleted point notes on the reading; questions directed at the instructor of course material; a paragraph reflecting on the Lab assignment for the week; a poem; a summary of recent technology news; anything, so long as it is turned in on time, is relevant to the course, and meets the required length.

Option Two: Submit a brief "Tinker" where you have attempted to "program" something, using the tools of the course, that is not directly related to another course assignment. Include screenshots of the input work done and the output result (even if it does not work), along with a brief statement of your intentions, the approach you took in getting it to work, and your thoughts on your result so far. Make sure it is clear what code came from you and what came from online/the reading/etc.

Submission

Submit your journal as a Word/PDF (NOT a .pages) document to Blackboard.

Grading

Journals are each worth 1/100 towards your final grade. Grading is pass/fail based on meeting the requirements of the chosen option.