Computer Science 110: Winter 2010
Fundamentals of Computer Science

Contact Details

My preferred method of communication is face-to-face. My office hours are posted above and unless I'm teaching or at a meeting, I can make an appointment to meet with you at nearly any other time. If you are around, feel free to drop by. The best way to remotely reach me is through email. I will try to respond to your email by 9 pm each day, and much sooner if I am in the office. If I am in a meeting with a student there is a good chance that I will NOT answer the phone. Leave a message and I'll get back with you.

Text Books

Required Texts

Python Programing: An Introduction to Computer Science

John Zelle

1-887902-99-6

Class Specifics

Grading Scale

I use a 10 point grading scale. 90=A, 80=B,70=C,60=D. I reserve the right to shift down this scale if needed.

Labs (10% of your grade)

To master computer programming you need extensive practice. To help you become good computer scientists, we will spend about half of our classes performing labs. Attendence in labs is manditory, unless the lab has been submitted. For every missed lab over the second, the student's grade will be penalized two percent. Students with extended illnesses or emergencies should contact the instructor.

We will make use of programming labs developed at Centre College and several that were developed here at Hanover college. These labs take about two hours to complete, assuming that everything goes well. However, small mistakes and lack of preparation can cause the time needed to complete your labs to be longer.

Labs are assigned on the day of lecture and are due the night before the next lecture! Plan ahead.

Labs will usually be worth 2 points each.

1. 1 point for a working algorithm: written in comments along side the code. Do this step first. Later in the class this will be relaxed to "proper" documentation of functions.
2. 1 point for a working solution.

If you do not answer every question in the lab, you will recieve no credit. I reserve the right to grade labs in more depth if student performance is lacking.

Quizzes and Handouts(20% of grade)

Every lecture day I will assign reading and homework problems. The next lecture day, I will start class with a quiz based on the homework assigned, and or the vocab, concepts or algorithms discussed in any previous class. (Vocab, Concepts, and Algorithms are clearly marked on the homework page).

As you have seen all exam materials before, You will have limited time to complete your quiz (10 minutes). I assume that you have previously solved the problem and will not have difficulty answering the question again. Students are encouraged to work together and to visit the professor if they have any difficulty in completing their homework assignment. If you are absent, quizzes cannot be made up. I will drop the 2 lowest quiz scores.

Sometimes, students will be given a handout in class. Handouts are due the next Lecture. These are to be done individually, and have the same credit as a quiz.

Projects (20% of your grade)

You will be assigned 4-6 projects over the course of the term. Projects will allow you to investigate parts of computer science in more depth. Your projects should be points of pride and you will present them on your website (see below).

Tests (15%, 15% of grade)

There will be 2 tests in this class. Each test will focus on the material that we covered since the last test, but some portions will build on earlier topics.

Final (20% of grade)

Final is cumulative and will be given at the time prescribed by the registrar.

Expected Work Load

My expectation is that students will spend an average 1 hour of reading for each lecture class and 1 hour of Lab/homework outside of class. In addition there will be projects. You will get some time in class to work on these, but overall you will need to spend time outside of class to complete these projects. The time it takes to complete programing assignments is hard to judge. A simple error can take hours to find. I recommend starting your labs before class. If you finish great, sleep in. Otherwise come to class ready to pick up where you got stuck. Otherwise, make plans to come and see me so I can help you out. If you find that you are working more than 4 hours outside of class, each day, come and talk to me. There may be something obvious that you are missing, or I am moving the class along too fast. Either way we will work together to fix the problem.