Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 1, “Introduction to Python for Beginners” (7th-8th)
Hello Parents and Students!
We’ve officially launched Day 1 of our Introduction to Python for Beginners course at Career Connections at SAVY, and what an exciting start! Today was all about getting comfortable with Python and exploring how coding works in a fun, cloud-based environment.
What We Learned Today
Our focus was on the foundations of programming. By the end of the day, students were able to:
- Log in and navigate to Google Colaboratory (Colab), our coding workspace in the cloud.
- Write their first Python program (a friendly “Hello, world!”).
- Understand how to use variables to store information like names, numbers, and more.
- Explore data types like integers, floats, strings, and booleans.
- Practice basic arithmetic operations and combine strings in creative ways.
- Learn how to work with simple lists and perform type conversions.
Students also selected their mini-project(s) topic (in groups of two) and shared their Colab notebook with their team member and instructor. Some of the projects selected were a cooking game, a poker game, a number guessing game, a rock paper scissors game, a calculator, a Mad Libs game, a text-based adventure game, a weather suggestion bot, a flash card app, a budget tracker, and a quiz game.
All of this was done in a highly interactive environment, with plenty of opportunities for students to ask questions, test code, demonstrate their code in class to their peers, and see results instantly.
Student Reflections
Students shared some of their favorite moments:
- “I liked using Colab, it’s easy to use with results shown instantly.”
- “I liked seeing how changing one number in code gives a totally different answer!”
- “It was cool that I could make a list of my favorite foods and print it.”
These moments help reinforce that coding isn’t just logical; it can be creative and personal, too!
Family Conversation
We encourage students to share what they learned at home. Here’s how you can engage with them:
- Ask them to show you their Colab notebook and explain their code.
- Invite them to teach you how to write a simple program like: print(“Hi, I’m [Name]! Welcome to Python.”)
- Ask them what project(s) they selected and what they will do?
Optional Challenge: Have your child create and print a list of their top 5 favorite foods using Python!
Looking Ahead to Day 2
Tomorrow, we’ll explore control flow (if-else statements) and loops (for and while), the building blocks of decision-making and repetition in programming. We can’t wait to see our students tackle new challenges and enhance their programming skills!
Regards,
Ishita