Code Toolkit: Python, Spring 2026: Schedule

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Weekly plan: class notes, assignments, etc

• Week 1 (Wednesday, January 21) — Thinking like a computer?

  • Introductions
  • About the course
  • What is a program?
  • The Processing Development Environment ("PDE")
  • Drawing with numbers
  • The window as a grid of pixels

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes
  • Welcome slide presentation

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tuesday, January 27, 8pm

• Week 2 (Wednesday, January 28) — Adding variance

  • Variables
  • Arithmetic (+, -, *, /)
  • Introduction to random()

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  • Lev Manovich. The Language of New Media, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Chapter 1 (pages 18-55). Please note that I am only asking you to read chapter 1 of this text (pages 18-55). The rest of it is also great, and I've included a PDF of the entire thing. But I only plan to discuss chapter 1 in class. If you have already read this (I have assigned it in some other classes) then you might consider reading the Prologue and Introduction, or any other chapter that you think would be interesting for you.
    Reading response due Tuesday, Sept 2, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Class artifacts

  • Slide presentation on Manovich (link to come)
  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tuesday, February 3, 8pm

• Week 3 (Wednesday, February 4) — Adding interactivity

  • Code blocks and frames (setup() and draw())
  • Debugging (with println())
  • Mouse interaction (mouseX and mouseY, pmouseX and pmouseY)
  • map()

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tuesday, February 10, 8pm

• Week 4 (Wednesday, February 11) — Making things move

  • Conditionals if and else
  • Keyboard interaction
  • Motion

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  • Miriam Posner, "JavaScript is for Girls" [or a PDF here]
  • Janet Abbate, "Coding Is Not Empowerment" , from Your Computer is On Fire, MIT Press, 2021
  • Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner, "Machine Bias" , ProPublica, 2016. [or a PDF here].
  
  Reading response due Tuesday, September 16, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Class artifacts

  • Slides from reading discussion of texts this week (link to come)
  • Class notes (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come), due Tuesday, February 17, 8pm

• Midterm project assignment (link to come)
  Assigned Wednesday, February 11.
  

  Due dates: Monday, March 23, 8pm for peer/code review;
  Wednesday, March 25 for in-class presentation & discussion; and
  Friday, March 27 for submission of final draft.

• Week 5 (Wednesday, February 18) — Adding repetition

  • Loops

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come), due Tuesday, February 24, 8pm.

• Week 6 (Wednesday, February 25) — Working with many things (lists)

  • Data structures: lists

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)

    Reading (to discuss in class today)

    The readings for today offer us a chance to go deeper into our thinking about what this thing called data visualization really is, to think about it's various biases and controversies, and what it does well. I hope it will help you think about what you might work on for the midterm project.
    
    

  • "Data Visualization" , from Matthew Fuller's Software Studies: A Lexicon
  • Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein, "Unicorns, Janitors, Ninjas, Wizards, and Rock Stars", from Data Feminism, MIT Press, 2020

    Reading response due Tuesday, September 30, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come), due Tuesday, March 3, 8pm.

    Please note: there is another reading to prepare for discussion in class next week. See below. As with this week, the text for next week is related to one of the two midterm options, and so I hope will help you think about your plan for that.

    Also please note, your midterm planning document is due soon. Please refer back to the midterm assignment for details.

• Week 7 (Wednesday, March 4) — Timing, state, and modularity (functions)

  • Timing
  • State: a new way to use variables
  • Functions: for project planning, reusability and modularity (To be addressed briefly this week; we will continue the discussion next week.)

  Class artifacts

  • Slides from reading discussion of Galloway text (link to come)
  • Class notes (link to come)

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  Note: due Tuesday, October 7, with this week's homework for discussion on Wednesday, October 8.
  • Alex Galloway, "Gamic Action, Four Moments", chapter 1 (pages 1-38) from Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. If this is too long, you can focus on the introduction (pages 1-8) and the section titled "The Play of the Structure" (pages 25-38).
  • (Optional.) Claus Pias, The Game Player’s Duty: The User as the Gestalt of the Ports

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come), due Tuesday, March 10, 8pm.

• Week 8 (Wednesday, March 11) — Midterm project work and review as needed

  • Midterm project work

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come): Review of concepts for midterm including text and fonts, implementing a projectile, and creating many projectiles with lists.

• No class, spring break

• Week 9 (Wednesday, March 25) — Midterm project presentations and discussion

  • Peer code review assignments (link to come)

  • Midterm project presentations

• Week 10 (Wednesday, April 1) — Python outside of Processing

  • Introduction to Python outside of Processing with VS Code and the command line
  • Another data structure: Dictionaries

  Note: In preparation for class today, please take a minute to install the Visual Studio Code IDE. I have provided some instructions here (PDF).

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come)

• Final project assignment (link to come)
  Assigned Wednesday, April 8;
  

  Due: Monday, May 4, 8pm for peer/code review;
  Wednesday, May 6 for in-class presentation and discussion; and
  Friday, May 8 for final draft submission.

• Week 11 (Wednesday, April 8) — Data serialization: for storage and communication

  • Data serialization with JSON
  • File input and output

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment (link to come)

• Week 12 (Wednesday, April 15) — Network protocols

  • Server-side Python: Introduction to a web app with Flask

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)
  • Slides from our discussion of the Galloway text (link to come)

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  Note: due Tuesday, November 18, 8pm (with week 12 homework) for discussion on Wednesday, November 19.
  • Alex Galloway and Eugene Thacker, " Protocol and Counter-Protocol", 2003

  Homework

  • The only homework this week was to make progress on your final project.

• Week 13 (Wednesday, April 22) — Saving data in a database

  • Reviewing Flask: HTML & CSS with templates
  • We will not use class time covering how to work with a simple SQLite database for persistant state, but if you are interested in this let me know and I'd be happy to discuss with you.
  • Final project concepts due for feedback.

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes (link to come)

  Homework

  • No homework this week other than working on the final project.

    Please come to class next week with questions — things that I might review for the class as a whole or questions you have specific to your project that I can help you with.

• Week 14 (Wednesday, April 29) — Final project review & work

  • Course material review & final project work

• Week 15 (Wednesday, May 6) — Final project presentations

  • Final project presentations and discussion
  • Peer review assignments (link to come)

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