CAPITOL COLLEGE

 

 

CT115 D01

 

 

Introduction to Programming

 

Spring 2008

 

TIME & LOCATION: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00AM to 12:30PM, Room M103 (new building)

 

REQUIRED TEXT: Programming and Problem Solving with C++, Nell Dale and Chip Weems, 4th edition

 

REFERENCE TEXT: Not applicable

 

GOALS AND OUTCOMES:  The abbreviated goals for this course are:

1.   To learn how to analyze simple problem statements.

2.   To learn how to design appropriate software solutions to problems.

3.   To learn how to implement these solutions as C++ programs.

 

Upon completion of the course, the student should understand computers, digital information as represented by binary numbers, and the functional components of a computer. The student should also be able to design and implement a program in C++ using interactive input, simple data types, selection and simple loops.

 

COURSE SUMMARY AND SCHEDULE:  This is a 3-credit course.

An introductory programming course that teaches the computer essentials and programming essentials: components of a computer, the computer as a tool for connecting to networks/internet, digital vs. analog, binary arithmetic, how information is stored, algorithms, input, branching, looping, and functions. An important aspect of this course is to present students with techniques for translating problem descriptions into computer algorithms, which are then implemented as a computer program. Extensive programming assignments are completed as part of the homework assignments.

 

 

WEEK OF

CHAPTER

TOPICS  (Tentative Schedule of Topics)           

EVENTS

1

Jan 8, 10

1

Introduction; computer architecture

 

 

2

Jan 15, 17

1

Problem solving, C++, 1st C++ program

 

Quiz 1( Jan 17)

3

Jan 22, 24

 

2

Program development, identifiers, C++ preprocessor, namespaces

 

 

Quiz 2 (Jan 24)

4

Jan 29, 31

3

Primitive data types, declarations, operators

 

Quiz 3 (Jan 31)

5

Feb 5, 7

3

Precedence, type coercion and casting

 

Quiz 4 (Feb 7)

6

Feb 12, 14

3

Function calls, formatting the output

Quiz 5 (Feb 14)

7

Feb 19, 21

3

String operators

Quiz 6 (Feb 21)

8

Feb 26, 28

 

Midterm 1 review, midterm 1

Midterm 1 (Feb 28)

9

Mar 4, 6

4

Interactive input

Quiz 7 (Mar 6)

 

10

Mar 11, 13

 

Spring break – no class

 

11

Mar 18, 20

4

File input and output

Quiz 8 (Mar 20)

12

Mar 25, 27

4

Bool data type, Boolean operators and expressions

Quiz 9 (Mar 27)

13

Apr 1, 3

 

Midterm 2 review, midterm 2

Midterm 2 (Apr 3)

14

Apr 8, 10

4

The if statement

Quiz 10 (Apr 10)

15

Apr 15, 17

5, 6

Comparing data, loops

Quiz 11 (Apr 17)

16

Apr 22, 24

6

Loops, final review

Quiz 12 (Apr 24)

179

Apr29 - May 5

Final

Final exam (date and time TBD)

 

 

Last day to withdraw from a course is April 28, 2008

 

PROFESSOR:

Hervé Franceschi

M202

X 3613

 

 

 

hfranceschi@capitol-college.edu

 

 

 

http://faculty.capitol-college.edu/hfranceschi/ 

 

Software:  Java (Windows or Unix); java can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet.

 

Lab Facilities:  lab (Java)

 

Getting Help:   Please feel free to ask questions during class as necessary.  For additional help, visit me

during my office hours or by appointment, or call me at the above given numbers, or send me an email.

 

Office Hours: 

DAYS

HOURS

Monday

12:00PM to 2:50PM and 4:20PM to 5:00PM

Tuesday

10:20AM to 11:00AM and 12:30PM to 1:10PM

Wednesday

1:00PM to 2:50PM

Thursday

10:20AM to 11:00AM and 12:30PM to 1:10PM

 

 

SEMESTER GRADES:

Attendance and Behavior

5%

 

 

Programming projects

15%

<A: 90-100%>

 

Homeworks

10%

<B: 80-89%>

 

Quizzes (12)

15%

<C: 70-79%>

 

Midterm 1

15%

<D: 60-69%>

 

Midterm 2

15%

<F: < 60%>

 

Final

25%

 

 

Total

100%

 

 

Homework:  All assignments are individual in this class; they must be completed individually.  You must completely understand all work that you submit; you must be able to provide explanations for all work that you submit.

 

Assignments:     As a general rule, all assignments must be completed to pass the course. 

Late assignments : Loss of 11% per week late.  Example :  perfect assignment 3 days late = grade of 89

Very late assignments may be handed in with your final exam at the end of the semester for a

maximum grade of 40%.

 

QUIZZES:  There are 12 quizzes total; you can drop your worst 2 quiz grades (i.e. only your 10 best

quizzes will count).  The quizzes are closed books/closed notes, multiple choice. No make ups will be

allowed.

 

TESTS & FINAL:  There are 3 tests in this class:  2 midterms and 1 final.  The final is cumulative.

Make ups are possible in exceptional circumstances provided advance notice and suitable

documentation is provided to me.  Unless otherwise stated, make-ups must be completed

within 1 week of the original exam date. Both the midterm and the final are closed books, open personal

handwritten notes (i.e. you cannot have notes that are copied from another source, and they must be

handwritten by you ; you cannot have handouts).

 

ATTENDANCE:  Attendance is important; a lot of labs are scheduled for this class and a lot of learning will happen in the classroom.  Proper and respectful attitude and behavior during class is expected. No disruptive behavior will be allowed. Pagers, cellphones, .. must be turned off before class. IPods, .. are not permitted in the classroom. Failure to obey these rules can lead to expulsion from this class. Please send me an email if you are going to miss a lecture.

 

WRITING REQUIREMENTS: The ability to communicate ideas using established rules of the English language is an important outcome of everyone’s technical education.  In this course, you will be required to complete assignments for which writing is an important component, and attention to the grammar, spelling, and style of writing that you employ will have a significant impact on your grade in such assignments.  You may seek help at the tutoring resource center to improve your writing abilities, should you feel that such help is necessary. 

 

INFORMATION  LITERACY: Given the magnitude of information that we are expected to deal with in performance of our tasks, it is important to learn the proper ways of finding, retrieving, storing, processing and incorporating the right type of information.  This course may include assignments that would require the use of on-campus and on-line libraries, the Internet or other sources of publicly available information.

 

OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT:  In order to determine the level of learning achieved in this course through the semester, you will be given a pre-test that covers some of the fundamental topics covered in this course and possibly in the prerequisite courses, accompanied by an exit test toward the end of the semester.  The grades you receive in the pre-test and exit test will not affect your overall grade for this course.  They are used for the sole purpose of institutional assessment of learning outcomes.    

 

THE "INCOMPLETE" GRADE: There is occasionally a misunderstanding about “incompletes.”  College regulation specifies that an incomplete grade may be awarded only if the student has completed almost all the work for a course and has a valid, institution-approved, reason for being unable to complete it.  If you are awarded an incomplete grade, it is your responsibility to complete all work for the course within the first 4 weeks of the next semester or summer term.  After this time, the Registrar automatically converts the incomplete to an F.

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:  It goes without saying that all work handed in for grading must be your own, but you must go further than this.  Avoid situations that could compromise your integrity.   For example, do not allow others to copy your work.  If inclusion of another person’s writings in your submitted work is appropriate, then proper credit should be given to the author of that writing.  I will report any instance of suspected academic dishonesty to the appropriate committees of the school for further investigation and possible sanctions.

 

USE OF MATLAB:   Not applicable

 

First Homework Assignment:  From the email address that you most frequently use, send me an email to my address at hfranceschi@capitol-college.edu with the following format:

Subject: CT115

Content:  Your first name, last name, and major

Please remember to type the course number in the subject area of all future mail that you send me.

BODY: Make sure you have a body which makes sense, particularly if there is an attachment with your email; I do not open attachment if I am not comfortable with the body of an email.

 

 

Web Site:  I will maintain a web site for this course that can be reached from the following address:

http://faculty.capitol-college.edu/hfranceschi/.  Starting from this homepage you can follow the appropriate links to see postings for assignments, homework, examples, etc. related to this course.  This syllabus is also posted on line.