Learning to Code on the Cloud: Introduction to Programming for Middle and High School Students (Part 1)

Ninghui Li

Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University
Coach of Purdue Teams for International Collegiete Programming Competition (ICPC)

Course Description

• Objective. This course is designed to lead students who have no prior programming experience into the door of coding, by teaching the basics of computational thinking in a gentle and hopefully enjoyable fashion.
• Approach. The course is problem driven, where language features and programming techniques are demonstrated using code to solve example problems. It takes advantage of the large number of interesting programming problems created by the best competitive programmers in the world, freely available on codeforces.com.
• Language Choice. Python 3, with focus on basic language features common with Java and C/C++.
• Requirements. Students need only to have a computer with web browsers and text editor, and should have pre-algebra level math background.
• Targetted Audiance. Middle or high school students (6th graders and up), and possibly 5th graders with prior exposure to extra curricular math. Students with some prior programming experiences can nonetheless benefit from solving the challenge problems.

Info for Summer 2021 Virtual Camp

• Sign up (closed).
• Duration: July 18 to July 31. For beginners to keep up with the pace, spending at least 4 hours per day on the course is expected.
• Pricing: This virtual camp is free of charge. This is not a course at Purdue and no grade will be assigned.
• Guest Speakers:
  • Richard Peng
  • Robert Proctor
  • Aiping Xiong
  • Ming Yin
  • Goran Zuzic
• Teaching Assistants to Lead Problem Sessions: Evelyn Cai, Rachael Cai, Bill Fei, Patrick Li, Jack Ma
• Format:
  • Video lectures will be made available.
  • In addition to video lectures, there will be 5 live lectures that all campers are expected to attend.
  • There will also be problem sessions where there will be experienced programmers answering questions and help finish the homework problems.
• Tentative Schedule (all time in EDT)

  Date	Morning	Afternoon	Date	Morning	Afternoon
  Sunday July 18		14:30 to 16:00. Lecture 1: Opening. Starting Topic 1	Sunday July 25	Break	Break
  Monday July 19	9:30 to 11:00. Evie and Rachael lead Q/A	14:30 to 16:00. Rachael leads Q/A	Monday July 26	9:30 to 11:00. Evie leads Topic 2 Problem Sessions.	14:30 to 16:00. Jack live solvesf codingbat List-1 problems.
  Tuesday July 20	9:30 to 11:00. Evie and Rachael live solve CodingBat: Logic-1	14:30 to 16:00. Live solving Rounding and Even-Odd Game	Tuesday July 27	9:30 to 11:00. Patrick leads Topic 2 Problem Sessions.	14:30 to 16:00. Bill live solves codingbat List-2 problems
  Wednesday July 21	9:30 to 11:00. Patrick live solves Paper Airplanes, Tricky Alchemy, Left and right	14:30 to 16:00. Lecture 2: If Statement and Indentation Guest Speaker: Ming Yin.	Wednesday July 28	9:30 to 11:00. Evie leads Q/A	14:30 to 16:00. Lecture 4: live solving codingbat string-2 problems. Guest Speaker: Aiping Xiong
  Thursday July 22	9:30 to 11:00. Patrick leads Q/A	14:30 to 16:00. Bill and Jack leads Q/A	Tuesday July 29	9:30 to 11:00. Rachael leads Q/A	14:30 to 16:00. Bill and Jack live solves codingbat Warmup-2 and Logic-2 problems
  Friday July 23	9:30 to 11:00. Evie leads Q/A	14:30 to 16:00. Topic 1 HW Problem Review	Friday July 30	9:30 to 11:00. Rachael live solves: Splitting in Teams, Local Extrema Brain's Photos	14:30 to 16:00. Patrick live solves USACO 2020 December Bronze problems
  Saturday July 24	Break	14:30 to 16:00. Lecture 3: Looping Guest Speakers: Goran Zuzic, Robter Proctor	Saturday July 31	Break	14:30 to 16:00. Lecture 5: Closing. Discussions on Programming Activities in High School. And Olympiad Informatics Training Discussion with Richard Peng.

Course Materials