Computer Science Concepts & Programming

Overview
Hi! I’m Anna, a current sophomore studying computer science and information science at Cornell University. The first
time I stumbled across computer science, I honestly didn’t really know what it was. As I got to learn more about the
subject, I realized that CS is so much more than computers, cubicles, and the huge blocks of code we see in movies – it
means creating fashion technology, technologies to help disabled people and underserved communities, technologies to
connect people around the globe like health professionals or to build communities that wouldn’t have existed
previously, and more. CS means having the power to create something. Over the course of this packet, I hope you will
also find interest in computer science and the power it can wield in our lives! It might seem boring at first, but I promise
that these foundational concepts help us develop more complex platforms and technologies.

This program will provide an introduction to fundamental programming skills in computer science (CS). This packet
focuses on the philosophy of CS & the 4 CS core concepts. The packet has 6 lessons: each lesson will contain exercises to
practice the skills learned, and a mini project at the end tying everything together. Answers to exercises will be at the
very end.

Lesson 1 introduces what computer science is and some terms used in computer science. Lesson 2 discusses the logic
and thinking behind computer science. Lessons 3-6 introduce what the 4 basic programming concepts are: variables,
conditional statements, loops, and functions.

Lesson 1: Intro to CS

What is Computer Science?

CS is the study of computers/computer systems and how we can use them to create new technologies and solve
problems. CS is important today as technology increasingly permeates our daily lives. More industries will need to rely
on computer science knowledge to power their services or create new ones to adapt to these technological changes.

Computer scientists study a variety of subjects, including but not limited to:
● Algorithmic problem-solving
● Software & hardware design
● Data analysis (processing, visualizing & interpreting data)
● Human-computer interaction
● Programming (including game design)
● Security (i.e. cryptography)
● Web design
● Robotics

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Careers & Applications of CS
Computer scientists learn how to solve problems through computational and critical thinking within the above subjects.
The knowledge and skills they learn prepare them for careers in a variety of sectors:
● Technology –​ designing software and hardware systems, developing mobile or desktop applications, devices, and
networks
● Retail​ – creating apps for customers to “virtually” try on items at home, analyzing consumer patterns to better
curate products
● Healthcare​ – analyzing data to better predict diseases, developing security or privacy systems for medical
records
● Arts ​– Composing digital music, designing special effects or improving CGI for movies
● Weather forecasting –​ developing models to predict hurricane behavior
● Education ​– interpreting data to better develop curriculum or learning methods, developing technologies to use
inside the classroom
● Finance –​ designing automated trading services, strengthening bank security features

… and more! As you can guess, a majority of computing-related careers fall outside the technology industry. It’s also
common for people with non-computing majors to later transition into a computing-related career.

Brief History of CS
Computers have come a long way – from room-sized machines to the tiny pocket phones we have today. Humans have
used mechanical devices to aid calculations for hundreds of years. The abacus existed around 3000 B.C., used to count
items by hand. In 87 B.C., the ancient Greeks created the Antikythera mechanism, the earliest known analog computer.
This mechanism helped predict the motions of the stars and planets to help navigate the seas.

In 1703 A.D., German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Liebnitz introduced the ​binary number system​ for doing
calculations, a system where information can be expressed by combinations of the digits 0 and 1. Ada Lovelace, an
English mathematician, took computing another step further in 1843, when she wrote the first computer algorithm.
Charles Babbage also invented a theory for the first programmable computer around this time.

The modern computing-machine era began with the Turing machine by Alan Turing and the invention of transistors at
Bell Labs. These made modern-style computing possible. In 1976, Steve Wozniak built the circuit board for Apple-1,
spurring home computing. Before, computing technology was exclusive to the government and later academic
institutions. Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990, and Marc Andreessen built the first user-friendly
Web browser in 1993.

Computing technology took off – and since then, digital technology has advanced phenomenally, bringing the
development of wearable technologies, microchips, neurotechnology, smart appliances, artificial intelligence
applications, VR/AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality) technology, and more!

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What are Programs, Programmers & Programming Languages?
To define programming languages, we need to define what ​programming ​is. Programming is giving a set of instructions
to a computer to execute. A ​computer program​, then, is the actual set of instructions. You can think of a program as a
recipe, with you being the computer and the recipe’s author being the programmer! The recipe author (programmer)
gives you a set of instructions (program) for you (computer) to follow.

Programming languages are the tools we use to write instructions for computers. Programming languages have
grammatical rules (semantics and syntax), similar to an actual spoken language. Programming languages allow
computers to communicate with each other, and for us as computer scientists to communicate with computers!

Computers “communicate” with each other in binary – strings of 0’s and 1’s. Programming languages translate binary
into something we can read and understand. A real-world example is when you send an email: what happens behind the
scenes is that a program translates your email into a set of binary instructions for the computer to interpret and execute
and “send” to the recipient.

What does it mean for computers to communicate with one another using programming languages? Programming
languages allow the parts of a computer (also known as the ​hardware)​ to communicate with one another. Hardware
refers to the literal physical components of a computer – the microprocessor, RAM card, transistors, chips, the keyboard
and screen, etc. Programming languages let these hardware components communicate and pass information between
one another using binary.

Programming languages can typically be split into two categories: ​low-level​ programming languages, and ​high-level
programming languages. Low-level languages are closer to machine code, or binary, and thus are generally difficult to
use for humans (but certainly easier than binary). Machine code is tied to the computer hardware.

To help visualize this, we can use an example where we’re writing binary machine
code to do an arithmetic operation. A programmer would need to know the
binary codes identifying first the keyboard numbers, and then also the string of
binary codes to send the numbers to the hardware that actually performs the
calculation, and then even more binary codes to send the output back to the
screen! Since low-level programming languages are close to machine code, they
follow in that there are a lot of grammar and syntax rules to consider, making it
difficult for programmers to use.1

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High-level programming languages ​abstract,​ or simplify, the computer hardware away and allow programmers to write
computer programs (instructions) without having to worry about the details of the computer. High-level languages use
words that we use in our everyday lives, making it easier for us to read and write complex programs! However,
high-level languages take longer to translate into machine code for the computer. With the advancement of computers
nowadays, though, the difference between low- and high-level languages is barely milliseconds!

Usually, when people talk about programming languages, they’re referring to high-level programming languages. Some
examples of such high-level languages include: Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, and countless more. Each
language contains different syntax, grammar, and semantics. The two most common are Python and Java. In this packet,
we will be using Python. Python is a versatile language used for a variety of purposes and fields, including but not limited
to data science, web development, and machine learning.

Why do we have so many programming languages? Because different languages have different rules, we can use the
ones that suit our needs best. For example, a common basic web development language is HTML. However, HTML
websites are ​static ​– meaning that each webpage is delivered, or looks, exactly the same to every user. But what if we
wanted our website to have a personalized title, such as “Hello [NAME]” for each user? A programmer might choose to
use React in this case to build a more dynamic and personalized website. There’s no “best” programming language – it’s
all up to opinion and needs!

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

How can we create such programs on a computer?
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An Integrated
Development
Environment (IDE) is a
piece of software that
allows us to write and
develop programs using
code. You can think of it
like a canvas for paintings
– you need a canvas to
create paintings on, just
like you need an IDE to
write code and create
programs on. There are
many different IDEs to
choose from depending
on the type of program
you want to write.

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Usually, in an IDE, there are 2 main spaces: the ​code editor ​and the ​terminal. ​The code editor is where you write your
code. In the image above, the code editor is the main area in the middle. On the left bar, you can see all your folders and
program files. Below the editor is the terminal – a place for you to actually see any output from your code! The terminal
is also called the ​console​, where again any output of your code will appear.

Above, the programmer is writing code in a file called scratch.py. There are currently two instructions in this program,
on lines 3 and 4 respectively:
1. print(“Hello World”)
2. print(“Hello edureka!”)

Let’s break these two lines of code down:

1. Print (output) “Hello World” to the console
2. Print “Hello edureka!” to the console

A ​print​ statement in Python tells the computer to print whatever is inside the parentheses out to the console. ​print
statements can be helpful for programmers when ​debugging​ code, or fixing errors in the code. We will see this in the
next few lessons!

In order for the code to actually execute, the programmer needs to ​run​ the code. You can think of running code like
packaging up a box before handing it off to the computer to actually execute! To run code, all you need to do is press the
run button. The run button is the triangle, seen in the image on the top right corner and on the left sidebar of the
console. In the image, the programmer has already run the code. As a result, in the console you can see the output!

In this packet, we won’t be needing IDEs, but they’re important to know about! IDEs provide a workspace for us to
create programs using ​programming languages.​

How IDEs Work

In order for our computer to actually execute our program, our code actually goes through a process in order to
translate it into executable instructions for the computer. In this process, we call the high-level code we write in
programs the ​source code​. When you hit the run button on an IDE, what happens is that the source code passes through

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a ​compiler​. A compiler is a program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and
translates them into machine code for the computer to process. During this step, the compiler also checks for any errors
in the code, and prevents the program from running if any errors are detected. The compiler ​parses (​ analyzes) all the
code statements in the program and builds the output machine code. We typically refer to this output code as ​object
code.​ The object code contains executable instructions that the computer can read and execute. This whole process is
called ​compilation.​

Vocabulary Review
● Computer science:​ The study of computers/computer systems and how we can use them to create new
technologies and solve problems.
● Binary system:​ A system where information can be expressed by combinations of the digits 0 and 1, used in
machine code to give instructions to computers
● Programming:​ Giving a set of instructions to a computer to execute
● Computer program:​ A set of instructions that a computer can execute
● Programming language:​ The tools we use to write instructions for computers. They have grammatical rules
(semantics and syntax), similar to an actual spoken language
○ Low-level programming language: ​Closer to machine code, or binary. Often hard to use.
○ High-level programming language: ​Abstract machine code away and use words that we use. Easier to
use.
● Integrated Development Environment (IDE): ​A piece of software that allows us to write and develop programs
using code
○ Code editor:​ The space in an IDE where programmers can write and edit code.
○ Terminal/console:​ A space where any outputs or ​bugs (​ errors) from your code will appear after you run
your code.
● print(“Hi there!”)​: ​Prints “Hi there!” to an IDE’s console/terminal.
● Source code: ​The high-level code programmers write in programs.
● Compiler:​ A program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and translates
them into machine code for the computer to process
● Machine/object code:​ The output of a compilation process

Exercises
1.1)​ What are some other applications/examples of CS in industry or everyday life that you can think of?
1.2)​ In our brief history of CS, we mentioned the Turing machine created by Alan Turing. What do you think this is? Can
you think of any other computer scientists you know?
1.3)​ What is the difference between low- and high-level programming languages?
1.4)​ Describe what happens when you run a piece of code.
1.5)​ You may have also heard of the terms ​information technology (IT) a​ nd​ information science.​ What do you think is the
difference between IT, information science, and computer science?
1.6)​ Write the code that would print “Hello [YOUR NAME]” to a Python console!

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Lesson 2: Computational Thinking
According to the BBC, computational thinking is a thought process that allows us to “take a complex problem,
understand the problem, and devise possible solutions. We can present these solutions in a way that computers and
humans can both understand.” Computational thinking helps us tackle problems using 4 main technique:
1. Decomposition: ​Breaking down problems into smaller, more manageable problem chunks
2. Pattern recognition:​ Looking for similarities among problems
3. Abstraction:​ Identifying important information while ignoring irrelevant details
4. Algorithms:​ Developing a step-by-step solution to a problem

We can create computer programs that solve complex CS problems using computation thinking: we take a complex
problem and break it down into chunks (decomposition). Each of these smaller problems can be looked at individually
using knowledge of similar problems that have been solved before (pattern recognition), focusing on the important
information while ignoring unimportant details (abstraction). By doing this, we can create step-by-step rules or
instructions for each of these small problems (algorithm). Put all together and we have a program that solves the initial
complex problem! Essentially, computational thinking helps us figure out what to tell the computer to do.

It’s important to note that computational thinking isn’t only limited to computer science. Computational thinking can be
used across a variety of fields, and refers to a way of thinking and solving problems rather than just a field itself. For
example, students can use computational thinking to perform literary analysis on books like ​Hamlet​ or ​Lord of the Flies.
They can break down (decompose) the themes and ideas of the literature to better understand the work and the
author’s message.

Decomposition
Decomposition means breaking down a complex problem into smaller, more manageable parts. We can focus on the
individual parts to solve the whole. Decomposition is important because without it, problems can be hard to solve.
Imagine trying to explain how to build a bicycle without knowing the parts and pieces of it. It would be incredibly
difficult! Decomposition means explaining how to build a bicycle by breaking it down into processes and parts.
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A real-world example of decomposition could be planning a birthday party. How can we break down this bigger task into
smaller, more actionable to-do lists? Here are some smaller problems that we could break this task into:
● Invitations
● A birthday theme
● A venue/location
● The total budget of the party
From these parts, we can further break the task down into smaller problems:

● Invitations ● A birthday theme

○ Choosing who is invited ○ Choosing a birthday theme
○ Creating invitations ○ Buying decorations
○ Sending invitations ○ Buying a cake
○ Gathering a final list of who can come

● A venue/location ● A total budget

○ Finding & contacting potential locations ○ Splitting the budget into parts
○ Confirming the location & time
○ Paying for the location

And etcetera! There are a lot of ways you could decompose this problem into smaller problems. Let’s practice how to do
this with something computer science related:

Exercises 2.1) ​Imagine you want to create your first app. How would you decompose this task? There are no wrong
answers here, and the goal is to understand how you can decompose a complex problem into manageable parts!

Pattern Recognition
Pattern recognition means looking for similarities or “patterns” between the smaller problems that we have
decomposed. Patterns can help us solve problems more quickly and efficiently. For example, imagine that we’re writing
an essay. We can decompose this problem of writing an essay into 5 smaller “problems”: the introductory paragraph, 3
body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. Here, we already have a pattern – the 3 repeating body paragraphs!
Additionally, there exist patterns within each body paragraph: we know that each body paragraph will most likely be
similar in structure, consisting of a topic sentence, evidence, and analysis. So, we see the pattern that each body
paragraph will need a topic sentence, a piece of evidence, and some analysis. Patterns allow us to create formulas that
we can refer back to everytime we need it!

B-paragraph = t + e + a ​(With ​t​ being the topic sentence,​ e​ being the evidence, and ​a​ being the analysis.
So, instead of rewriting the steps of a body paragraph over and over again, we can simply write “​B-paragraph​” and
refer back to our formula.)
Exercise 2.2) ​One of the ways that pattern recognition proves vital is in cryptography, the practice of writing or solving
codes. One famous encryption (i.e. encoding information) technique is the Caesar Cipher, a substitution cipher where

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each letter in the alphabet is replaced by a letter that is some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For
example, for a shift of 2: A = C, B = D, …, Y = A, and Z = B. People write messages using this encrypted alphabet, and pass
along the secret shift to the recipient. However, this cipher isn’t the most secure – it can be cracked (decrypted) through
pattern recognition. Use pattern recognition to decipher the message in the last sentence. What is the shift? ​Hint: which
letters appear the most in English words? ​FTQ OMQEMD OUBTQD IME ZMYQP MRFQD VGXUGE OMQEMD
Exercise 2.3) ​Take a look at the following string of numbers: ​0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21…​ This pattern is called the
Fibonacci Sequence, and is a famous formula in mathematics. What is the pattern in the sequence? ​(Hint: It has to do
with addition!). ​Can you figure out a “formula” for the pattern, like in the ​B-paragraph​ example given earlier?
Exercise 2.4a) ​Let’s practice decomposition and pattern recognition with another real-life example. Imagine that you’re
making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. First, decompose this problem into smaller problems (steps) that you can
take.
Exercise 2.4b) ​Now using your decomposition, can you recognize any patterns/repeats in your smaller problems? For all
the patterns you recognize, try to create a reusable “formula” that simplifies the patterns/repeats!
Exercise 2.5) ​What might happen if we don’t look for patterns?

Abstraction
Abstraction refers to ignoring, or filtering out the details of our problem that we don’t need to concentrate on. After we
decompose our problem into smaller problems and recognize patterns among the sub-problems, abstraction helps us
identify general characteristics among the patterns and filter out the irrelevant details in order to create the most
efficient solution. We can then create a model or representation of what we’re trying to solve!

We actually used abstraction in our previous example with the essay. We noted that all body paragraphs have general
characteristics, namely the topic sentence, evidence, and analysis. In addition, each body paragraph has specific
characteristics/details that we didn’t focus on, such as the source of the evidence, how long the analysis is, what the
topic sentence is about, etc. In order to write any general essay, we need to know the general characteristics of the body
paragraphs, but not the specifics! Here we abstract away the specific details to focus on the overall structure of the
essay. Once we know what a basic essay structure is like, then we start fleshing out the details of our essay.

Another great example of abstraction is with literature – when you read a book, what are the main ideas or themes?
These main ideas are separate from the details of the book. Let’s consider all books in general: what are the general
patterns across all books? What are the specific details?

General Patterns Specific Details

We need to know the main ideas/themes We don’t need to know what or how many themes there
are.

We need to know that a book has characters We don’t need to know the number of characters or who
the characters are

We need to know that a book has chapter We don’t need to know the number of chapters or what
the chapter titles are

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Exercise 2.6) ​What might happen if we don’t use abstraction?
Exercise 2.7) ​Say we wanted to create a random dog generator. What are the general characteristics (patterns) of most
dogs? What are the specific details of dogs that we don’t need to focus on?

Algorithms
Algorithms are step-by-step instructions to solve a problem. An algorithm is ​not t​ he solution, but rather a
problem-solving method – the algorithm is the set of instructions given to a computer to execute, but the actual solution
is what comes out of the algorithm (what is changed). In an algorithm, it’s important to succinctly describe each
instruction, and plan out the order in which to execute them. A computer only can do what is given to it, so writing good
algorithms is important to tell the computer exactly what we want it to do!

Algorithms exist all around us. If you’ve ever brushed your teeth, cooked a recipe, or followed an instruction manual,
then you’ve executed an algorithm! For example, we can think of a cake recipe as a high-level algorithm: we are
provided instructions that we must follow step-by-step in order to get to our solution, the baked cake.

Millions of more computer science related algorithms exist in common services such as Google maps (calculating fastest
and/or shortest route), Netflix or any social media (curating feed to fit your interests), Tesla (self-driving cars), patient
medical data in hospitals (encrypting the data to ensure cybersecurity), and more!

Exercise 2.8) ​Write an “algorithm” describing your morning routine. For example, maybe the first two instructions could
be:
1. Waking up.
2. Stretching for 5 minutes.
How can you use pattern recognition and abstraction to simplify this algorithm?

Lesson 3: Variables
Recap #1​: Python is a high-level programming language that we can use to write instructions for computers in program
files. Computers take these program files and translate them into machine code, then execute the instructions.

Recap #2​: What does the statement ​print(“Hello world”)​ do? This statement tells the computer to print the
phrase “Hello world” to the console when we run the code in an IDE. If we changed the phrase inside the quotes, it
would print out the changed phrase!

Exercise 3.1) ​Write the code that prints out your favorite quote to the console.

What are variables? In CS, ​Variables ​are used to store pieces of data that we
want to reuse. For example, if there is an email we want to remember, a
greeting we want to present, or an interest rate we want to reuse, we could
create variables storing these values. There are 3 parts of a variable in Python:
the ​name, assignment operator, ​and​ data.

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We ​assign​ data to a variable using the equals sign (​=​). In the example, we store the text ​“Anna”​ in a variable called
my_name​. Now everytime we refer to ​my_name​, we are actually referring to ​“Anna”​.

There are limitations to how we can create variables: 1) They cannot have spaces or symbols in their name other than an
underscore ( ​_​ ). 2) They can’t begin with numbers but can contain numbers after the first letter (i.e.
name_version_5​)

What if we wanted to store pieces of data other than text? Python has several ​data types t​ hat we can assign to
variables:
1. Strings:​ These are the blocks of text we have been using thus far, like ​“Anna”​ or​ “Hello world”​. Strings
can be encased in double quotes ​(“Anna”​) or single quotes (​‘Anna’​). So ​my_name = “Anna”​ is equivalent
to ​my_name = ‘Anna’.
2. Numbers:​ ​Python has multiple numeric data types.
a. An ​integer ​or ​int​, is a whole number. It has no decimal point and contains all whole negative and
positive numbers (..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2,…). Integers could be used when counting the number of people
enrolled in a class, the number of doctors available at the moment, the number of fabric colors there are
in a factory, etc.
b. A ​floating point number​ or ​float​, is a decimal number (i.e 3.7, 100.00, etc). It can be used to
represent fractions or precise measurements. Floating point numbers could be used when calculating
the average grade of students in a class, the amount of money available in a bank account, the amount
of a certain chemical in a medication, etc.
Let’s take a look at a piece of code:
What’s happening here? First, we create a variable named ​greeting
that stores the string “​Good morning!​”. Then, we write a ​comment.​
Comments are ignored by the program and don’t do anything outside of
providing context.

In Python, we write comments starting with the ​#​ symbol. Python understands that anything after the ​#​ symbol is a
comment. We write comments for many reasons, commonly to 1) Provide context for a piece of code, 2) Help other
people reading the code understand what it means/does, 3) Ignore pieces of code that we don’t want to run.

Exercise 3.2) ​Which out of the three reasons does the below comments serve?
A) ​# Calculates the number of words in a song B) ​# Stores the number of states in the US
song_calculation() num_states = 50

Exercise 3.3) ​Create a variable name ​my_age​ and set it to your current age. Then, print out the value of ​my_age​.

Using number data types, we can do addition, subtraction, division, and

multiplication in Python using +, -, /, and * respectively. For example:
Notice that when we do division, Python converts all​ int​s into​ float​s.
Additionally, notice how we can use variables to store numbers and do calculations
with them! In the last line, we refer to the number 7 and 4 as ​literals​ because they’re
actual numbers that we use and not variables storing the numbers.

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Exercise 3.5) ​Similarly, take a look at the following statements:
my_name = “Anna”
print(“Good morning” + my_name)
What prints to the console? ​Hint: Be careful of spaces!!

In Exercise 3.5, we are doing something called​ string concatenation! ​String concatenation means taking two or more
strings and combining them into one. Using the + operator, we can “add” strings together to create a new string!

Exercise 3.6) ​Store your name in a variable called my_name. Then, store your favorite animal in a variable called
favorite_animal. Print out the statement “My name is [NAME] and my favorite animal is [ANIMAL]”.

We can also concatenate number data types with strings, but we would first need to convert the number into a string
using ​str(num)​. However, if we want to print a number, we can ​pass ​it as a value rather than using ​str()​. For
example:

Exercise 3.7) ​Store this month in a variable with a name of your choice, and today’s date in another variable with a name
of your choice. When coding, it’s recommended to always name variables in a descriptive way that gives clues or context
into what they are supposed to store. Then, print out the string ​“Today is [MONTH] [DATE].”

When we do all sorts of calculations and concatenations, as humans, it’s natural to accidentally make mistakes. In
programming, we call these mistakes ​bugs ​(errors), coined by Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist and US
Navy rear admiral who was a pioneer of computer programming. Bugs pop up when we run our program – during the
compilation program, the compiler detects mistakes and ​throws​ an error, preventing the program from executing. On an
IDE, this normally shows up as an error message (usually in the console).
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In this image, the error message shows up
at the bottom starting with the line
“​SyntaxError: invalid syntax​”.
Sometimes, error messages also give
information about where the error occurred
in the code so you can go back and try to
locate the error, as also seen in the image.

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There are many ​types ​of errors that could occur. Some include:
1. SyntaxErro​r: Something is wrong with the syntax of your program, such as wrong or missing punctuation,
missing parenthesis, or commands in the wrong place.
2. NameError​: Python detects a word that it doesn’t recognize.
3. ZeroDivisionError​: It’s in the name! Python throws this error if you try to divide by 0.

Exercise 3.8) ​The following pieces of code contain 3 errors. What type of errors are they? Debug the code so that no
errors occur when we run it.
weather_today = “Today was a beautiful, clear sunny day.’
print((3 + 6) + ((9 * 2) + 1)
weather_tomorrow = “Tomorrow will be more rainy.”
print(weather_tomorrow + I like rainy weather too.)
For number data types, there are 2 more operators we can use: the exponential (​**​) operator and modulo (​%​) operator!
The exponential operator does what it says in the name: it performs exponential calculations like 7^3, 2^0, etc. Here, we
are representing exponents using the carrot (^), but Python uses a double start (​**​). The modulo operator​ (​ ​%​) gives the
remainder of a division. If the number is divisible, then the remainder is 0. We use modulo in programming when we
want to do something every nth time.

Exponent (**) Modulo (%)

# Prints 7 * 7, or 49 # Prints remainder of 33/3, or 0

print(7 ** 2) print(33 % 3)
# Prints square root of 225, or 15 # Prints remainder of 42/8, or 2
print(225 ** (0.5)) print(42 % 5)
# Prints remainder of 1/3, or 1
print(1 % 3)

Exercise 3.9) ​How can we check if the square of 11 is even using the exponential and modulo operators? Write a print
statement that checks this.
Exercise 3.10) ​Imagine that there are 83 students in the class. The professor wants to split the class into groups of 5.
How many students will be left over in the last group? Print out this number.

What if we wanted to store a really long string that spans multiple lines? If we
tried doing this, we would get a ​SyntaxError​. Instead, we can use triple
quotes (​”””​ or​ ’’’​) to indicate ​multi-line strings​. Sometimes, we may also
want to use a quotation in our strings. In order to use a quotation mark within
a string, we need to use an ​escape character​: a backlash followed by a
quotation (​\”​ or ​\’​). This tells Python that the quotation doesn’t end the
string, but rather is a part of it.

While variables store values, they can be updated as needed! We can reuse variables to represent a changing state. For
example, maybe we are writing a program that allows you to select a medical patient from a database of patients. In this
program, we may want to store the patient’s ID or name in a variable, and update the variable everytime we select a

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new patient. Another example could be calculating the averages of a class: we store this average, say 80, in a variable
called ​class_avg = 80​. everytime a new assignment is graded, we want to recalculate the average and update
class_avg​ to reflect the new average.

We can update variables by simply reassigning them to the new value, similar to ​initializing ​(creating) them! For
example: ​class_avg = 88​ or ​class_name = “New Name”​. We can also update variables using the ​plus-equals
(+=) operator. This is a shorthand for updating variables by taking the current value of the variable and adding the new
value to it. This can be helpful when we’re trying to take the sum or total of something, or add onto a string.
# Prints out “New Name TBD”
print(class_name += “ TBD”)

Exercise 3.11) ​Add onto​ the steak story variable to turn it into a successful story! Then, pick a random number and store
it in a variable named accordingly. Update your random number by 3. Then print out the steak story along with the line
“It took me [YOUR RANDOM NUMBER] tries.”

Lesson 4: Conditionals
Conditions ​exist all around us in our everyday decisions: Do I have work today? If so, I’ll get up and start getting ready. If
not, I’ll stay inside and sleep in for a little longer. Suppose I have work today (darn it). I have to get up and start getting
ready for my day. Is it cold outside today? If so, I’ll wear a heavy jacket, but if not, I’ll wear a light one.

These questions and decisions describe a ​control flow​, where we can take different ​paths ​depending on what we are
conditioning on. For example, in the first question “Do I have work today?” we are conditioning on if we have school or
not. We can take two different pathways depending on the answer, a yes or no.

Computers are similar! They can take different paths of instructions, going from top down, depending on different
conditions. Whenever a condition is met, the computer will take that path of instruction.

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Exercise 4.1) ​Come up with a conditional statement of your own. Define two paths you could take depending on
whether this condition is ​true​ (yes) or ​false​ (no).

Booleans
Recap:​ Variables can take on different data types, such as ​string​, ​int​, and ​float​. The ​Boolean data type,​ or ​bool
type,​ ​is another data type which can take on only two values: ​True​ or ​False​ (Note: capitalized letters). We can create
bool​ ​variables the easiest way by assigning them to either a ​True​ value or a ​False​ value: ​is_cold_today =
True​ or ​is_cold_today = False​. These two values represent the two paths that we can take depending on if
something is true or false, like in the diagram!

Using booleans, we can create ​boolean/conditional expressions,​ or statements that evaluate to either true or false.
Going back to our original example, the question “Do I need to go to work today?” can be transformed into a boolean
expression: ​I need to go to work today​. This expression can evaluate to either ​True​ or ​False​.

Exercise 4.2) ​Come up with 3 more boolean expressions not from the example. Feel free to create a flow chart diagram
like in the previous page!
Exercise 4.3) ​What kinds of statements wouldn’t qualify as boolean expressions? Name an example.

Relational Operators
We can create boolean expressions using ​relational operators,​ which compare two things and return either ​True​ or
False​ depending on the comparison! Relational operators are also referred to as ​comparators​ for this reason. There
are 6 types of comparators:
● Equals: ​==
● Not equals: ​!=
● Greater than: ​>
● Less than: ​<
● Greater than or equal to:​ >=
● Less than or equal to: ​<=

The exclamation mark (!) represents “not” in comparators, which we’ll explain in detail later. Let’s take a look at some
examples of boolean expressions using these comparators:

Exercise 4.4) ​What do these boolean expressions evaluate to?

a) print(1 + 1 != 2)
b) print(254 % 5 <= 10)
c) print(254 / 5 > 10)
Exercise 4.5) ​Come up with 3 of your own boolean expressions!

We can also compare strings using relational operators, namely

equals ​(​=​) and ​not equals (​ ​!=​). However, keep in mind that
comparing strings is ​case sensitive.​ That means that ​print(‘a’
== ‘A’)​ evaluates to ​False​!

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We can also use the other relational operators to compare strings; however, in this case the compiler will compare each
letter to one another one-by-one. Depending on the character table of the computer, the evaluation may be different.
This is because every character has a numerical value associated with it according to the computer. Remember when we
talked about how computers communicate in binary (system of 0’s and 1’s)? Associating each letter with a number helps
computers translate that associated number into binary code.

We can also assign boolean expressions to variables! Like how we assigned ​is_cold_today = True​ or
is_cold_today = False,​ we can replace the ​True​ or ​False​ assignment with equivalent boolean expressions:
is_cold_today = 5 < 10 ​or​ is_cold_today = 6 + 3 != 18
Exercise 4.6) ​Create a variable named ​test_bool​. Assign ​text_bool​ to ​“true” ​(with quotations). What data type
does ​test_bool​ represent?
Exercise 4.7) ​We can check the types of variables by using ​type(variable)​ and printing it out to the console in an
IDE. For example, to check the type of ​test_bool​, we would use: ​print(type(test_bool))​. Change
test_bool​ to a bool type by assigning it to a boolean expression.

Boolean Operators
What if we wanted to check more than one boolean expression at a time? For example:
​ ill it rain later today?
● Is it cold outside ​and w
● Do I want cereal for breakfast ​or ​do I want an apple?
● Did I close the window blinds ​and d ​ id I turn off the lights before going to bed?

We can create larger boolean expressions using ​boolean operators​, or ​logical operators. T​ here are 3 main boolean
operators:
● and​: If it is morning time ​and​ the sun is out, then...
● or​: If it is morning ​or​ the sun is out, then...
● not​: If it ​isn’t ​morning, then…

If you’ve heard of logic tables, then you might know that each boolean operator has a ​logic table ​associated with it. A
logic table determines what the resulting value is (True or False) of some number of expressions. The logic tables for
and, or, and not are as follows:

A B A AND B A OR B NOT A

True True True True False

True False False True False

False True False True True

False False False False True

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Where ​A​ and ​B​ represent boolean expressions (conditions). Notice that for ​and​, if either conditions evaluate to ​False​,
then the whole boolean expression (​A AND B​) evaluates to ​False​. ​Both c​ onditions must be true in order for the
whole boolean expression to be ​True​. For or, if either conditions evaluate to ​True​, then the whole expression is true!
For ​not​, not simply means flipping the value.

Exercise 4.8) ​Write a boolean expression (can be like the morning example!) for each of the boolean operators. Feel free
to also write the pathways that occur from each evaluation (​True​ or ​False​) :)
Exercise 4.9) ​What do the following boolean expressions evaluate to?
a) (3 * 4 == 12) and (9 % 5 > 5)
b) (10 - 12 >= 0) or (8 ** 2 < 100)
c) not (12 + 16 > 25) and (5 * 3 == 15)
d) not (8 + 33 <= 40) or (not (9 + 10 != 19))
e) (not ( 26 % 5 == 3 and 82 - 7 + 5 > 77)) or ((not (12 + 41 == 53)) or 76 % 7 == 1)

If/Else Statements
Let’s go back to morning example we used when describing logical operators:
● and​: If it is morning time ​and​ the sun is out, then...
● or​: If it is morning ​or​ the sun is out, then...
● not​: If it ​isn’t ​morning, then…

If/Else statements represent two different pathways based on a condition (our boolean expression). Remember the
diagram at the beginning of the lesson? Each box had two branches stemming from either a True/False decision – in
programming, the “yes” branch represents an ​if statement,​ and the “no” branch represents an ​else statement. ​For
example: ​If it’s morning time, then I’ll go outside for a walk. Else, I’ll stay
inside and watch a movie.

Can you pick out the boolean expression in the example? Right, it’s “if it’s morning time”, and we are checking to see if
this condition is true. If it is, then we execute the rest of the if statement and go outside for a walk! If the condition is ​not
met, we execute the else statement and stay inside. Some real world situations where we might use if/else statements
includes online retail (if our total amount is over $50, then we get free shipping), education (if we have completed at
least 5 lessons, then we receive a virtual badge/reward), wearable technology (if a button is activated then it will call
911), and more!

In Python, we write if/else statements in the following format on the right: Don’t worry
about what ​go_walk()​ and ​stay_inside()​ mean. For now, they represent our two
paths, but we’ll go in depth about what the syntax means later. Else statements always go
hand-in-hand with if statements. They describe the other pathway, if any, to an if statement.

Exercise 4.10) ​Let’s write an if/else statement in Python for our online retail example: if our total amount is over $50,
then we get free shipping. Otherwise, shipping is $5. First, create a variable that stores the total amount and initialize
(set) it to a number of your choice. If the total is over $50, then print out “You get free shipping!” If the total is less, then
print out a converse statement.

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Exercise 4.11) ​Imagine that you’re taking a tough class. In order to pass the class, your grade must be equal to or greater
than a 70.0, ​or y​ our final exam score must be greater than or equal to 85.0. Otherwise, you must retake the class. Write
an if/else statement in Python that describes this scenario.
Exercise 4.12) ​Think of 2 other scenarios where you would use an if/else statement in real life. For example, if you have
enough batter, then you’ll make a big cake. Else, you’ll make small muffins.

Else If Statements
We’ve talked about if/else statements. But there’s one more I’ve been hiding from you guys: ​elif​ statements.

Else if statements provide an ​alternative path​ to an ​if​ statement if there’s more than two paths you want to define. Elif
statements check another condition if the ​if​ statement is ​False​. The computer runs through ​if/elif/else
statements in order, checking each condition from top to bottom. ​Elif​ statements go hand-in-hand with ​if
statements, much like ​else​ statements. It wouldn’t make sense to have an alternative path without the initial path!

In the example to the left, how many pathways are defined?

Yeah, 4 paths! Let’s go through this code using a concrete example:

pretend that our ​total = 35​. First, we check the if statement. 35
< 75, so we ignore the rest of the ​if​ statement. Next, we go down
to check the first ​elif​ statement. Again, 35 < 50, so we ignore the
rest of this statement and go down to check the second ​elif
statement. 35 >= 30 so we have a hit! We execute the rest of this
elif​ statement and thus print out “Shipping is $10” to the console.

Imagine if all of these were ​if​ statements instead of ​elif​ statements. What would happen if we had a total of, say,
$80? Our computer would check each condition sequentially and print out all of the first three statements because all of
the expressions would evaluate to ​True​. Having ​elif​ statements ensures that our computer only takes ​one p ​ ath.

Exercise 4.13) ​In the example above, what would happen if our total equals a negative number (not a realistic situation,
but in code there is a possibility that this could happen accidentally)? Debug the example to account for this error.
Exercise 4.14) ​Come up with your own ​if/elif/else​ statement using any scenario you want! It might help to refer
back to Exercise 4.12. Your solution should include at least 1 elif block. To challenge yourself, include boolean operators
when creating your conditions!
Exercise 4.15) ​What is the difference between an ​if​ statement and an ​elif​ statement? What about an ​elif
statement and an ​else​ statement?

Lesson 5: Loops
Alright. Referring back to the previous example in Lesson 4, imagine you’re calculating the correct shipping fee for a
purchase transaction using conditional statements. You need to do this 3 times, for 3 different totals. Alright, cool, let’s
copy/paste the code block 3 times! Problem solved. But what about if you needed to do it 10 times? 50? 100+?

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Personally, my fingers would probably fall asleep doing that; plus, I’d most likely miscount and accidentally only
copy/paste about 99 times instead of 100. One way we can avoid this tedious repetition is by using something called
loops i​ n programming! Loops take a block of code and repeat it for us, without the need for manual copy/paste. That
way, we can ​reuse c​ ode easily, thus making our code “cleaner” (nicer to read and simpler), and saving a lot of time and
efficiency on our part as programmers.

For Loops
Supposed we wanted to print “Hello!” out to the console 10 times. The
code block on the left demonstrates how we might do this using a ​for
loop​ instead of repeating a ​print(“Hello!”)​ statement 10 times.

The syntax of a ​for​ loop is as follows to the

right. The first line defines our ​for​ loop, with
the code block that we want to repeat ​indented
inside the ​for​ loop.

Here, ​[# of times]​ represents the ​number of times we want to repeat our code block​. This should be a numeric,
positive, whole number. Our ​for​ loop takes our code block and cycles through it ​[# of times]​. We refer to each
cycle as an ​iteration.​ Thus the ​for​ loop ​iterates​, or runs, through our code block ​[# of times]​. ​temporary_var
is a temporary variable that we use to represent whatever iteration​ ​that we are currently on. Every time the ​for​ loop
goes through an iteration, the temporary variable updates to reflect the current iteration. You can think of the
temporary variable like a current state!

The temporary variable can be named anything, but best practice is to name it in the context of what we’re doing
(similar to variables). The temporary variable also does not have to be defined (AKA initialized or set to anything). So in
our first example where we printed “​Hello!​” ten times, the “​i​” in the for loop could actually be any letter like “a”, “j”,
etc. Generally, computer scientists use the letter “​i​” because of something called “lists” in programming, which is a
more advanced concept that won’t be covered in this packet. Lists are much like the kinds of numbered lists we have in
real life (i.e. grocery lists, todo lists). However, programmers typically number lists starting at 0. So, for a list of 10 items,
the items would be numbered from 0-9. We call these numbers “​indices​” (plural of ​index)​, hence the “​i​” letter.

In a ​for​ loop, we are essentially iterating over a numbered list starting from 0! Here’s a diagram to help visualize this,
referring back to our first example again:

i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

iteration 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th

output “Hello!” “Hello!” “Hello!” “Hello!” … (5 … (6 ... ... ... ...

“Hello!” “Hello!” … (4 times) times)
“Hello!” times)

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We can think of a numbered list starting from 0, with each item being the code block that we want to repeat. We call
each item on the list an “iteration”, much like how we call items on a grocery list “groceries”. In our example, with each
iteration of the for loop, ​i​, or the index, increases until it has iterated 10 times total. It’s like running through an actual
list!

Exercise 5.1) ​What would the following code blocks output? (​Hint: for part b, pay attention to syntax & indentation!)
a) b)

Exercise 5.2) ​Write a for loop that prints out your favorite food 3 times.
Exercise 5.3) ​Write a for loop that prints out the index if it is a multiple of 4 in the range 0-20.

Let’s say you were trying to find a particular number, like the number
4, in a range of numbers. Once you find it, you want to print out
“Fount it!”. To the right, we illustrate this scenario. However, do you
notice something off about this loop?

It continues to iterate even after finding the number 4 and printing out “Found it!” While these empty iterations aren’t
terrible, they do cost machine performance and efficiency. One way we can break out of a loop is by using the ​break
keyword. When the program reaches a ​break​ statement, it will break outside of the ​for​ loop, thus avoiding empty
iterations. One way this can be applied in a real-world situation is perhaps if we’re performing a matching algorithm with
a huge quantity of data. When we find a match, we would want to break out of the loop instead of continuing to search
through the massive amounts of data!

Conversely, there also exists the ​continue​ keyword, which allows us to “skip” iterations and go straight to the next
iteration in the ​for​ loop.

Exercise 5.4) ​What is the code block on the left doing? What does it
output to the console?
Exercise 5.5) ​Rewrite the code block so that it doesn’t use the ​continue
keyword.

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While Loops
While​ loops a​ re another type of loops that repeat a code block ​while a​ certain condition is met (here’s where our
conditions are important!!). ​While​ loops, similar to ​for​ loops, iterate through a list. However, ​while​ loops run (i.e.
repeat) until the condition is broken.

First, we initialize ​index = 0​. While ​index​ is less than 20, we

print out the message “I am out of ideas” and ​increment (​ increase)
index​ by 1. As a result, this piece of code prints out “I am out of
ideas” twenty times!

Notice how we didn’t wrap our condition (​index < 20​) in parentheses. It’s okay to not have parentheses here
because we only have one condition we’re checking. However, if you’re combining multiple conditions to create a
complex boolean expression, it’s important to correctly wrap your conditions in parentheses to avoid confusion.

Take a second look at the example. Do you notice any similarities between the ​while​ loop and the ​for​ loop? In fact,
we can translate this ​while​ loop into a ​for​ loop and vice versa! Why so? In a ​for​ loop, we are iterating through a
range of numbers. In our example, we iterated a total of twenty times. If we were to translate this ​while​ loop into a
for​ loop, that means our range would be 20!

Exercise 5.6) ​Translate the example while loop into an equivalent for loop.
Exercise 5.7) ​In our example ​while​ loop, we incremented ​index​ by 1 during each iteration. What would happen if we
were to exclude this line of code from our loop?
Exercise 5.8) ​Translate Part A from Exercise 5.1 into a ​while​ loop.
Exercise 5.9) ​Sum up all the numbers from 1-50 using a ​while​ loop and store the result in a variable named ​sum​.

We’ve seen that ​while​ loop and ​for​ loops can be interchangeable. So what’s the point of having two different types
of loops? ​While​ loops are most often used when we don’t know how many iterations we need to fulfill a condition. For
example, imagine that we want to find the number of times that a random number is divisible by 2 until the number is
less than or equal to 1. If we knew this number, we could do the calculation. However, since we don’t, we can use a
while​ loop to do the calculation. Let’s write how we would do this using ​pseudo code, ​or step-by-step instructions in
plain language (we used pseudocode to create our algorithms in Lesson 2!):

In our next lesson, we will learn how to get our random number.
However, here we can see that our ​while​ loop will continue
iterating until it accomplishes something, i.e. until our number <=
1.

Nested Loops
Just like how we can repeat code using loops, we can actually iterate over ​loops​ as well! ​Nested loops​ are loops within
loops. It may sounds complicated, but let’s break it down using an example:

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When we execute this nested loop, we start at the outer loop, ​i = 0​. The console prints out “​i = 0​”. Then, we go
into the inner loop, where ​j = 0​. We go inside the inner loop and execute the inner loop’s instructions: the console
prints out “​j = 0​” accordingly. Then, since we hit the end of the inner loop’s instructions, we ​increment the inner loop
and perform the instructions again, for ​j = 1​. We repeat these steps again for ​j = 2​. Then, since the next increment
would be outside of the inner loop’s range, we ​jump out to the outer loop​ and increment ​i = 1​. The console prints out
“​i = 1​”. The inner loop has reset, so we start at ​j = 0​ again and repeat what we did before for the inner loop.
We can visualize this using the chart and going from left to right along the columns and down the rows. The outer loop
starts with ​i = 0​. Then the inner loop executes, incrementing ​j​ until we exit the inner range. We jump out to the
outer loop (second row), increment ​i = 1​, then execute the inner loop again starting at j = 0. We do this once more for
i = 3.
Exercise 5.10) ​What would be the output of the above example?

You can think of this like each item in a list is another sub-list. So, when we iterate through the items on the list, we also
iterate through each sub-list when we get to the item.

Here’s a more challenging example using nested loops: how can

we reproduce the image on the left? Let’s ​decompose t​ his
problem! First, take a look at the rows. We know that ​i = 0​ on
the first row, ​i = 1​ on the second row, etc. There are 5 rows. We
can write a ​for​ loop with ​range(5)​ that prints out one asterisk
(​*​) with each iteration to get the first column of 5 stars.

So we know the outer loop iterates through rows. We need an inner loop to iterate through the columns now! First, let’s
make another table to help us visualize the problem. Remember that outer/inner loops iterate from left–right, top
down.

The cells in bold are the ones that represent our stars. Take a couple of minutes to look at the table. Do you notice a
pattern​ between ​j​ and ​i​? Right, the last star of each row has ​j = i​. All the stars below have that ​j < i​. So that
means we want to keep printing stars ​as long as j ​ <= i.​ Where do we print the stars? In the body of our outer loop or

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the body of our inner loop? Remember that the inner loop ​iterates along columns​. So, we would want to print the stars
in the body of our inner loop! Take a couple of minutes to write the pseudocode of this ​algorithm (​ hide the below
images before checking!!).

Exercise 5.11) ​Try to reproduce the two images on the right using asterisks,
computational thinking, and nested ​for​ loops. ​Hint: for the first diagonal crosses, think of
sums!

Lesson 6: Functions
Functions are blocks of code, or ​sets of instructions, t​ hat we can ​call​ to evoke. When we “call” a function, we run
through the set of instructions once. So, functions allow us to repeat blocks of code without having to copy/paste code!
What’s the difference between a function and loop, then?

What’s special about a ​function​ is that we can actually feed “inputs”, or ​arguments,​ into the
function and it’ll give us an output after performing its set of instructions on those inputs.
It’s like a mathematical input/output machine (shown in the image to the left).

So, a function is a set of instructions that you can use over and over on different inputs. We
actually already know one built-in Python function: ​print()​. This function takes in a data
type as an argument (i.e. “Hello”, 3, etc.) and outputs it out to the console.

Say that we want to print out the 2 lines “Good morning!” and
“How are you doing?” every time a customer visits a website.
Instead of repeating this code, we can put it in a ​function​ named
greeting_msg​. Every time we want to print these lines, we can
call our function by using the syntax: ​greeting_msg()​. The
parentheses are ​super important​!

Everytime we call ​greeting_msg()​, our messages will print to the console. We define a function using the keyword
def​. Our function body, the code we want to repeat, should be indented. Otherwise, it doesn’t count as part of the
function.

Functions can also take in inputs, or ​parameters​. We use or

operate on these parameters in our function bodies. On the right,
name​ serves as a placeholder for whoever’s name we want to
pass into ​greeting_msg()​, similar to the input ​x​ in our initial

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math function table. We call ​name​ a ​formal parameter,​ and whatever string (​“Beth”​) that we substitute into ​name​ the
argument.​ The function assigns ​name = “Beth”​ at the beginning. If we called ​greeting_msg()​ with a different
argument like ​greeting_msg(“Anna”)​, then ​name = “Anna”​.
Functions can actually take as many parameters as we want. So
we can add: ​greeting_msg(name, age, major,
eye_color)​ and more! However, however many parameters
we have, we ​must p ​ rovide arguments for all of them when we
call the function: ​greeting_msg(“Beth”, 21,
“Architecture”, “Brown”)​. Otherwise, we will get an
​ e
error. To avoid this error, we can use ​default arguments. W
assign function parameters to default arguments, such as
major=”CS”​ and ​eye_color = “brown”​ in the example
on the right. Now when we call greeting_msg(), we can choose
to pass in these last two arguments, or leave them out like in
the example! If we leave them out, the function will use the default arguments. Default arguments ​must be defined at
the end​ of a function signature (inside the parentheses). Otherwise, you will get an error.

Exercise 6.1) ​What is the output of the previous example?

Exercise 6.2) ​What is the output of the following code?
A) B)

Exercise 6.3) ​Debug/edit the code in 6.2A and 6.2B above so that the code runs.
Exercise 6.4) ​Write a function that takes in a parameter ​num​ and checks if ​num​ is a prime number. If so, it prints out
“You found a prime.” Else, it prints out “[​num​] is not a prime number.” ​Note: A prime number is a number that is only
divisible by itself and 1.

Functions can also ​return v​ alues to the user. We can store this value in a
variable to be used later. To return a value, we use the ​return​ keyword.
Note, we’re returning ​values​, not variables! As a result, if you return a value
but don’t do anything with it, then there is no point in calling the function in
the first place. On the right, ​sum_nums​ sums all the numbers from 0-​num​,
inclusive. ​sum_nums​ calculates and ​returns ​this sum, which we can store in
variables like ​sum_10​ and ​default_sum​! What are the values of ​sum_10
and ​default_sum​?

sum_10 = 55​ and ​default_sum = 15​! They store the returned sum
from each individual call to ​sum_nums​. Functions can also return ​multiple
values​. The function ​cubed(x, y)​ on the right takes in two numbers and

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cubes them, returning both cubed values. We store the cubed values in the variables ​x_3​ and ​y_3​. What does the code
print out? (Answer: 27 and 512).

Exercise 6.5) ​Write a function that takes in a name (length >= 3 letters) and returns 3 values: the first letter, the middle
letter, and the last letter. ​Note:​ Remember lists and indices? Indices number the items of a list. Like a list, the letters in a
string are numbered starting from 0. We can find the length of a string using the function ​len(string)​, i.e.
len(“Anna”)​ would equal 4. We can refer to the first letter in a string as ​string[0]​, the second letter as
string[1]​, the third as ​string[2]​, the last as ​string[len(string)-1]​, and etc. Don’t worry about the
brackets syntax! ​Note 2:​ Remember that division yields a float value. Indices are integers. To change a float to an int, use
int([float value])​. This truncates everything in a float after the decimal point; i.e. 3.5 → 3, 4.75 → 4, etc.
Exercise 6.6) ​What would happen if in ​cubed​, we accidentally forgot ​y_3​ and instead called ​x_3 = cubed(3,8)​?
Exercise 6.7) ​Rewrite Exercise 6.4 using the ​return​ keyword. ​Hint: when we use the ​return​ keyword, we actually
don’t have to return a value! When we use ​return​ without a value, it simply means to exit the function.

Something we need to talk about regarding functions is ​scope.​ Going back to the ​cubed​ function, what if we called this
function using the line: ​x_cubed, y_cubed = cubed(4, 5)​? In fact, the code would actually still work!
x_cubed​, ​y_cubed​ inside ​cubed​ are ​defined only inside the function scope.​ Therefore, ​x_cubed, y_cubed​ that
we define ​outside t​ he function scope represent an entirely different set of variables. Similarly, if we tried to print out the
parameter ​x​ or ​y​ of cubed, we would get an error because ​x​ and ​y​ are defined only in the function scope.

Exercise 6.8)
A) What does the following code output? B) Write a function named ​count_letters​ that takes
in parameters ​letter​ and ​word​ and returns the
number of occurrences of ​letter​ in ​word​. Assume
that ​len(word) > 0​.
a) count_letters(“a”, “avocado”)
returns 2
b) count_letters(“e”, “book”)
returns 0
c) count_letters(“m”, “diamond”)
returns 1

Mini Project: Quilts (Mail us your creations!!)

Imagine that you want to create a quilt using code! You’re not
sure what dimensions your quilt will be, but you know it will be a
square (i.e. 4x4, 8x8, etc). Using what you learned about
computational thinking, variables, conditional statements, loops,
and functions, create a program that can print out a quilt design
in a dimension you choose. The individual patterns can all be the
same or variations of patterns, some examples on the left. Your
designs aren’t limited to stars, feel free to use other characters as
well!! The second image to the right is an example quilt!

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Feedback
Hey, we’ve sadly reached the end of the packet. Thank you for sticking with me through all of it. I hope that you were
able to gain something out of these lessons and that it wasn’t ​too​ boring :) . I tried my best to include real-world
examples where we would use these concepts, but I think some may have gotten lost in translation. However, I hope I
have helped shed some light on how and where computer science can be used, and how powerful of a tool it can be!

We would love to hear what your thoughts were on this packet: What did you like? What didn’t you like? What did you
wish this packet included more of? What did it lack? How did your expectations of this packet differ from what it actually
is? How can we improve this going forward? Additionally, please feel free to send any questions over. All Q’s welcomed!

Exercise Answers
1.1)​ Some more examples: using AR/VR (augmented what problem the app is trying to solve, how will you market
reality/virtual reality) for architecture to visualize what a built your app, etc.
space would look like, creating assistance devices to call for 2.2)​ Shift = 12. Answer: THE CAESAR CIPHER WAS NAMED
help in the case of say an epilepsy seizure, creating art tech AFTER JULIUS CAESAR
that can expand to 3D space. 2.3)​ Each number represents the sum of the two numbers in
1.2)​ Alan Turing is a notable computer scientist who created front of it! i.e. 2 = 1 + 1, 5 = 2 + 3. Formula: a​n​ = a​n1​ + a​n2​ with
the Turing machine, the basis for the first computer. He also a​n​ representing the current number, a​n1​ representing the
developed a test for artificial intelligence, still used today. previous, etc.
During WWII, he helped decrypt Germany’s Enigma machine, 2.4a)​ One way to decompose the PB&J problem is: A) Take
quickening the Allied victory. There’s actually a movie about out two pieces of bread. B) Take out the PB&J. C) Spread
this accomplishment called “The Imitation Game”. One peanut butter on one slice of bread. D) Spread jam on one
inspiring computer scientist to me is Ada Lovelace, who was slice of bread. E) Put the two pieces of bread together.
considered the first computer programmer! 2.4b)​ One pattern we can identify is steps C & D above – both
1.3)​ Low-level programming languages are closer to machine involve spreading something over a slice of bread. 1 way we
code while high-level languages resemble more of human could make this into a formula: Spread ​x​ on one slice of
languages. bread, with ​x​ representing the type of spread we want.
1.4)​ When you run a piece of code, it goes through the 2.5)​ Our solution may be incorrect or inefficient!
compilation process in which the compiler checks for any 2.6)​ If we don’t use abstraction, we could end up with an
bugs, and if none are found, translates the program into incorrect solution to our problem. For example, referring
machine language for the computer to execute. back to the essay structure example, if we didn’t use
1.5)​ IT focuses on maintaining & installing computer systems. abstraction we might think all body paragraphs are exactly 6
Computer science focuses on developing these computer lines long with the same topic sentence. Using abstraction
systems and making them run more efficiently. Information helps us form a clearer model of an essay!
science focuses on solving problems created by computer 2.7)​ Answers vary. Some examples: We assume all dogs have
systems and connecting people and CS. tails, fur, four legs, two ears, etc. (in real life this isn’t true!
1.6)​ For me, the answer would be: ​print(“Hello But for the sake of simplicity we assume). Some specific
Anna”) details we don’t need to focus on include whether the dog is
2.1)​ Some tasks we can decompose this problem into: what muscular or not, whether it’s tall or short, how long its tail is,
kind of app is being created, who is the target audience, what how loud it barks, etc.
the brand will look like, how the user will navigate the app, 2.8)​ An example could be: 1) Rolling on your side. 2) Snoozing
for 5 minutes. 3) Waking up. 4) Stretching for 5 min. 5) Drink

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a glass of water. 6) Journaling for 5 minutes. We can use 4.3) ​Opinions wouldn’t qualify as boolean expressions. For
pattern recognition and abstraction to simplify this by taking example, “Ramen is the best thing in the world.”
a trend and making a formula out of it: in 3 steps, we do 4.4) ​A) (
​ 2 != 2)​ → ​False​, B) ​(4 <= 10)​ → ​True​, C)
something​ for 5 minutes. We can simplify this to: do [x] for 5 (50.8 > 10)​ → ​True
min. 4.5) ​Varies!
3.1)​ Answers vary. My answer would be: ​print(“If they 4.6) ​test_bool = “true” # It is type string
don’t give you a seat at the table, bring 4.7) ​test_bool = True
a folding chair.”)​From Shirley Chisholm, the first 4.8) ​Varies!
Black woman elected to the US Congress. 4.9) ​A) (​ True and False)​ → ​False​, B) ​(False or
3.2)​ A) Reason #2: helping other people reading the code True)​ → ​True​, C) (​(not True) and True​) → ​False​,
understand what it does/means. B) Reason #1: providing D) (​(not False) or True​) → ​True​, E) (​(not
context for a piece of code. The comment explains what is (False and True)) or ((not True) or
the purpose of the variable ​num_states​. Without the False)​) → ​True
comment, we would be left wondering – states for what? A
game? The evaporation process?
3.3) ​my_age = 18​ ​// print(my_age)​(Using ​//​ to
represent a new line)
3.4) ​Good morningAnna
3.5) ​my_name = “Anna” // favorite_animal =
“whale” // print(“My name is ” + my_name + 4.12) ​Varies. Example: If it’s 11PM, then I’ll go to sleep. Else,
“ and my favorite animal is ” + I’ll draw for a little bit.
favorite_animal) 4.13) ​If our total was negative, our code would print out
3.6) ​month = “December” // date = 7 // “Shipping is $13”. We can debug this by changing the first ​if
print(“Today is“, month, date) // # Note: statement to an ​elif​ and adding the ​if​ statement:
using print this way automatically adds if(total < 0): print(“Ineligible.”)​. We want
spaces! to put this check at the top so that if the total is ineligible,
3.7) ​A) SyntaxError @ line 1: the quotes around the first then the computer doesn’t run through the conditionals
string should be the same (single or double). B) SyntaxError unnecessarily.
@ line 2: missing a parentheses at the end. C) NameError @ 4.14) ​Varies. Example answer:
line 4: Python can’t recognize the string and thinks it should
be defined in the program. To fix, put quotes around ”I like
rainy weather too”.
3.8) ​print(11 ** 2 % 2 == 0)
# If it’s even, dividing by 2 should yield
a remainder of 0
3.9) ​print(83 % 5) # This gives the
remainder, or the people left in the last
group! Answer: 3
3.10) ​Multiple answers. Example answer:
steak_story += “I tried again the next
day, and it worked!” // random_num = 5 //
4.15) ​An ​if​ statement conditions on an independent path,
random_num += 3 // print(steak_story, “It
while an ​elif​ statement goes hand-in-hand with an ​if
took me”, random_num, “tries.”) // # You
statement and provides an alternative path. Similarly, an
could have also used concatenation to
else​ statement goes hand-in-hand with ​if​, but forces the
print it out!
computer to take the ​else​ path in the case that the ​if
4.1) ​If I’m in a good mood today, I’ll sing in the shower. Else,
statement evaluates to ​False​.
I’m going back to sleep.
5.1) ​A) G
​ ood morning // Good night // Good
4.2) ​Varies. Examples: I know how to sew clothes (True), my
morning // Good night // Good morning
name is Marie (False), I know 4 languages (True)

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Note: we increment ​i​ in this loop, but this is redundant code 6.3)​ A) Move ​score_2​ param after ​score_3​. B) Either: add
b/c ​for​ loops automatically increment. B) NameError: must a default parameter to sums, or pass in an argument to our
put parentheses around the ​count​ variable. Once empty call.
parentheses added, will output all the numbers from 0-24. 6.4) ​We use ​found_prime​ to keep track of if n ​ um​ is a
5.2) ​Varies. Example answer: prime. We assume that ​num​ is a prime (​found_prime =
for count in range(3): True​), and throughout our f​or​ loop, if​ num​ is divisible by
print(“Noodles!!! <3”) any number between 2–(​num​-1), then that means it isn’t
5.3) ​for index in range(21): prime.
if(index % 4 == 0):
print(index)
5.4) ​It loops through all the numbers from 0-9 and prints out
all the odd numbers.
5.5) ​for i in range(10):
if(i % 2 != 0):
print(“Odd number: “ + i)
5.6)​ ​for index in range(20):
print(“I am out of ideas”) 6.5)​ ​def name(name):
5.7)​ If we excluded the index increment, we would have return name[0],
something called an ​infinite while loop​. An infinite ​while name[int(len(name)/2)], name[len(name)-1]
loop keeps running and never ends, while can slow down 6.6)​ Our code would actually still run! ​x_3 = (27, 512)​,
your computer and may break your program. It is vital to which is something we call a ​tuple​ that won’t be covered in
avoid infinite loops!! Usually, you can exit an infinite loop by this packet, but is legal code.
refreshing the browser, or clicking a “stop” button in an IDE. 6.7) ​If num is divisible by any number between 2–(num-1),
then it’s not a prime. We print out the statement and exit the
function. Otherwise, the for loop would execute all the way
through, find no divisors, and print out the last statement.

5.10)​ ​i = 0​ // ​j = 0​ // ​j = 1​ // ​j = 2​ // ​i= 1​ // ​j =
0​ // ​j = 1​ // ​j = 2​ // ​i = 2​ // ​j = 0​ // ​j = 1​ // ​j =
2
5.11)
6.8) ​A) Output: “C”. B)

6.1)​ ​Good morning, Beth​ // ​Beth is 22 years

old and has blue eyes.​ // ​Beth, are you
majoring in Art?
Good morning, Abby​ // ​Abby is 19 years old
and has brown eyes.​ // ​Abby, are you
majoring in CS?
6.2)​ A) Error: all default arguments must be defined ​at the
end o ​ f a function signature. B) Error: print_nums() doesn’t
pass in an argument.

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