Note: dates and assignments more than a week out may be adjusted as the semester goes on. Please consider this page to be a living document subject to changes througout the semester. 

Spring 2026

Week

Date

Subject

Assignments -- details on Canvas

1

--

W Jan 14

F Jan 16

 

Overview and syllabus

Data Types , Set up for Python (instructions)

no assignments

2

M Jan 19

W Jan 21

F Jan 23

MLK Day - No Class!

Modules 

Turtle Graphics

Lab 1 - This and all subsequent labs take place on Thursday in Roberts Hall, room 111. (Time depends on assigned section.)

3

M Jan 26

W Jan 28

F Jan 30

Turtle Graphics Events 

Functions 

Selection 

Program 1 - This and all subsequent programs will be due on the Friday of the week after they are assigned.

Lab 2

4

M Feb 2

W Feb 4

F Feb 6

Strings 

Iteration, Recursion 

Review

 

Lab 3

5

M Feb 9

W Feb 11

F Feb 13

Exam 1 (in class with pencil)

Lists

Lists 

 

Program 2, No Lab

6

M Feb 16

W Feb 18

F Feb 20

President's Day - No Class!

Lists 

Files

 

Lab 4

7

M Feb 23

W Feb 24

F Feb 27

Files 

Files

Dictionaries 

Program 3

Lab 5

8

M Mar 2

W Mar 4

F Mar 6

Dictionaries 

Dictionaries

Object Oriented Basics 

 

Lab 6

9

M Mar  9

W Mar 11

F Mar 13

Object Oriented Basics 

Object Oriented Basics

OOP - Principles

Program 4 - due Friday after the break

Lab 7

10

M Mar 16

W Mar 18

F Mar 20

Spring Break - No Class!

Spring Break - No Class!

Spring Break - No Class!

 

 

11

M Mar 23

W Mar 25

F Mar 27

More Object Orientation 

More Object Orientation 

Review

 

Lab 8

12

M Mar 30

W Apr 1

F Apr 3

 Exam 2 (in class with pencil)

NumPy Module 

University Day  - No Class!

 

Program 5, No Lab

13

M Apr 6

W Apr 8

F Apr 10

NumPy Module

NumPy Module 

matplotlib Module

 

Lab 9

14

M Apr 13

W Apr 15

F Apr 17

matplotlib Module

matplotlib Module 

pandas Module 

 

Lab 10

 

15

M Apr 20

W Apr 22

F Apr 24

pandas Module

pandas Module 

scikit-learn Module 

 

Lab 11

16

M Apr 27

W Apr 29

F May 1

Python vs. C vs. Java

Review OOP

Review Data Science Modules

 

17

M Dec 4

FINALS WEEK

Final Exam (Exam 3)

8:00 am - 9:50 am
BARNARD 103

 

Professor

Daniel DeFrance: office hours. Bio, and contact Information are available from the Faculty Directory.

Teaching Assistants

TAs are responsible for live assistance during lab, holding office hours in the Student Success Center, answering emails, and grading assignments. 

You can learn who your TA is by going to your assigned lab time and meeting them in person, or by looking up their contact information, which available on the syllabus in Canvas.

 

Lectures and Textbook

Lectures take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 - 9:50 am in Norm Asbjornson Hall Room 165. It's recommended you bring your laptop to follow along with in-class coding examples. 

The main text we will use for this course free and online. 

The table below lists out the schedule with links to lecture topics and what textbook sections to read for which days.

Labs

Labs meet in Roberts Hall Room 111 on Thursdays.  The time of your meeting will depend on the section in which you are enrolled. To find out about more, you can use the Schedule of Classes to filter for CSCI 127, which provides a list of all the sections, and at what the times they meet. It should take you an hour or two if you are well prepared (labs generally open the evening before lab day so you can get a sneak preview), but you will have until midnight on lab day to submit your work to Canvas for grading.

A Teaching Assistant (TA) will be in the room to answer questions, provide guidence, and grade the assigments. Each section will have a different TA, so get to know yours early, and take note of their office hours to visit them outside of lab time.

Programs

Programs are take-home assignments that are meant to take a bit more effort than the labs. Subsequently there are fewer of them you will have more time to finish. Programs are generally assigned every other week, and opening Monday morning, and closing Sunday night. It is strongly recommended you make every effort to finish the programs before the deadline, early in the week if possible. A tip: zeros are a lot worse than a plain old bad grade. If you get your program together enough that you think it would be worth some points, go ahead and submit it early with Canvas -- you can always improve it and resubmit right up until the deadline.

Your TA will be familiar with the program and will grading it when your are finished, so they're a great resource to ask for help, but during lab times they will be focused on the lab. To get help with the programs, it's better visit the Student Success Center in Barnard Hall Room 259. Your TA will hold office hours there, but really anyone working there at the time you drop in should be able to sit down with you and help you with your program, even if they are a TA for a completely different class.

Exams

There are three exams over the course of the semester, including the final exam during finals week. The exams take place in the NAH class room during regular class hours (except for the final exam, which has its own schedule at the end of the semester.) These exams are all weighted evenly -- the final exam is not worth any more points than the other two.

Grading

Note: Practicums must be taken at the regularly scheduled time at the designated place and will not be given early or late.

  • Weekly Labs - 40% (evenly weighted)
  • Programs - 30% (evenly weighted)
  • Practicums - 30 % (evenly weighted)

To pass the course, you must average at least 50% on the exams. Assuming that this is the case, grades will be determined (after any curving takes place) based on your class average as follows:

  • 93+: A
  • 90+: A-
  • 87+: B+
  • 83+: B
  • 80+: B-
  • 77+: C+
  • 73+: C
  • 70+: C-
  • 67+: D+
  • 63: D
  • 60: D-