This is a classroom activity report on teaching algorithms as part of a second course in computer programming. Teaching an algorithm in an introductory level programming class is often a dry task for the instructor and the rewards for the student are abstract. To make the learning of algorithms and software more rewarding, this assignment employs a Rubik’s cube.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity relates hieroglyphics and art to abstraction.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This lecture/activity relates abstraction in modern art to computational thinking
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This two week assignment asks students to interpret and analyze the 1974 Arecibo Message sent by Drake and Sagan. Week 1 introduces the concepts behind the construction of the message and engages with a critical analysis of the architecture and the contents of the message. Week 2 asks students to develop software in a Jupyter Notebook (available for free from the Anaconda Python Distribution) to interpret messages that were similar to those produced by Drake and Sagan.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
The digital age has created the need for a new kind of literacy-a literacy that empowers news consumers to determine whether information is credible, reliable and truthful. This is not just a skill; it is a new core competency for the 21st century. So-called “fake news” is hard to spot and spreads easily, leading to disagreements over basic facts. The antidote to the growing challenges posed by this digital revolution is news literacy. This mini news literacy course includes two three-hour sessions that will teach anyone to become a more critical consumer of news.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment
This is the first of two lessons/labs for teaching and learning of computer science and sociology. Either and be used on their own or they can be used in sequence, in which case this should be used first. Students will develop CS skills and behaviors including but not limited to: learning what an API is, learning how to access and utilize data on an API, and developing their R coding skills and knowledge. Students will also learn basic, but important, sociological principles such as how poverty is related to educational opportunities in America. Although prior knowledge of CS and sociology is helpful, neither is necessary for student (or instructor) success on this two-week project. Three instructional hours per week (total of six hours over two weeks).
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This lesson is connected to but can be used independently of "Using Big Data to Identify and Understand Educational Inequality in America (1)" Students will develop CS skills and behaviors including but not limited to: learning what an API is, learning how to access and utilize data on an API, and developing their R coding skills and knowledge. Students will also learn basic, but important, sociological principles such as how poverty is related to educational opportunities in America (and how this relationship varies between and among states). Although prior knowledge of CS and sociology is helpful, neither is necessary for student (or instructor) success on this project. Three instructional hours.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
These materials include background for the instructor and a lab that engages student in an analysis of global inequality while learning and using the R language (a programming language for statistics). Students obtain data on the US and two other countries (one more developed and one less developed).
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
These materials include background for the instructor and a lab that engages student in an analysis of global inequality while learning and using the R language (a programming language for statistics). Students ultimately write a function to access country level data from the CIA World Factbook.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This material introduces Linux File System structures and demonstrates how to use commands to communicate with the operating system through a Terminal program. Basic program structures and system() function of Perl are discussed. A brief introduction to gene-sequencing terminology and file formats are given.
Material Type: Lecture Notes
This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided, connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to enter the data folder, which includes gene-sequencing input files and print the first five line of each file remotely. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the VMI can be used to do the exercise.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This manual guides the instructor to combine the partial files of the virtual machine image and construct sequencer.ova file. It is accompanied by the partial files of the virtual machine image.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This material briefly reintroduces the DNA double Helix structure, explains SNP and INDEL mutations in genes and describes FASTA, FASTQ, BAM and VCF file formats. It also explains the index creation, alignment, sorting, marking duplicates and variant calling steps of a simple preprocessing workflow and how to write a Perl script to automate the execution of these steps on a Virtual Machine Image.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided and connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to automate the tasks to create VCF files from two different sample genomes belonging to E.coli microorganisms by using the FASTA and FASTQ files in the input folder of the virtual machine. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the VMI can be used to do the exercise.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
User-friendly Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the common thread of this collection of presentations, and activities with full lesson plans. The first section of the site contains an overview of cartography, the art of creating maps, and then looks at historical mapping platforms like Hypercities and Donald Rumsey Historical Mapping Project. In the next section Google Earth Desktop Pro is introduced, with lessons and activities on the basics of GE such as pins, paths, and kml files, as well as a more complex activity on "georeferencing" an historic map over Google Earth imagery. The final section deals with ARCGIS Online and StoryMaps with tutorials, basic exercises on pins, paths, and CSV import, and a lesson plan for creating a research project presentation on an historic building in StoryMaps. In addition to an xml file that has been uploaded here to Academic Works, the module is also a live website at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/cs-x. The site was created with Libguides software, and is a Community Libguide that can be reused and imported into other LibGuides sites. The website also contains links to two live StoryMaps, one on an Introduction to ARCGIS StoryMaps (https://arcg.is/1SX1zH), and the second, a model assignment on the history of the Fairway building in Red Hook, Brooklyn (https://arcg.is/1nbHP).
Material Type: Activity/Lab
An Encryption activity and worksheet for CS0 students. Part of the CUNY CS04All project.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This archive contains a series of lessons on cryptography suitable for use in a CS0 course. The only requirement is familiarity with Python, particularly dictionaries, lists, and file IO. It is also assumed that students know how to create stand-alone Python programs and interact with them through the terminal. Most of the work is done in Jupyter notebooks. The material found in the notebooks is a combination of reading material, exercises, activities and assignments. Below are descriptions of each lesson or assignment and links to notebooks on Cocalc. The same files are available for batch download in this archive.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture Notes
A Binary Code activity and worksheet for CS0 students. Part of the CUNY CS04All project.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This is an introduction Python dictionary, using Python 3. Prior knowledge of input/output in Python, and Python list is recommended. For CS0 students. Part of the CUNY CS04All project.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes
This is an introduction to work with files in Python. Prior knowledge of variables, assignments, expressions, input-output, lists, conditionals, and loops is recommended. For CS0 students. Part of the CUNY CS04All project.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes
