Introduction to Programming: Python

🌟 Introduction to Programming: Python - A Master Course from Beginner to Expert! 🚀

Are you ready to embark on a journey through the exciting world of programming? Our "Introduction to Programming: Python" course, led by the experienced instructor Daniel Szelogowski, M.S., is meticulously designed to guide you from a novice to an expert in Python and introduce you to Java's concepts as well! 🐍💻

Course Overview: In this comprehensive course, you'll dive into the fundamental aspects of programming using Python. With its clear syntax and vast community support, Python is the perfect language to kickstart your journey in computer science. As you progress through the course, you'll also get a taste of Java to understand the similarities and differences between these two powerful languages.

By mastering Python, you'll not only develop key skills in functional and object-oriented programming but also grasp concepts like polymorphism, imperative programming, and regular expressions. This foundation will enable you to learn other high-level languages, such as C++, Swift, C#, Octave, R, Julia, and Ruby, more efficiently. 🎓✨

What You'll Learn: 🚀 Section 1: Getting Started

• Introduction, how to succeed in the course, and setup
• Understanding what Python is and the nature of programming
• Writing your first 'Hello World' program and understanding the 'main' concept
• Working with Input/Output, Comments, and Docstrings
• Exploring Data Types, Arithmetic Operations, and Numerical Operations in Python

🔍 Section 2: Core Programming Concepts

• Embracing PEP and The Zen of Python
• Mastering Boolean Expressions and Conditional Statements
• Utilizing Loops, including for, while, range, and the 'in' keyword
• Crafting and understanding Functions, and even delving into Recursion
• Exploring The Standard Library and managing software dependencies with pip

📚 Section 3: Data Structures

• Manipulating Lists and utilizing List Functions and slices
• Working with Matrices and understanding Dictionaries and their functions
• Unpacking Tuples and leveraging the 'itertools' Library
• Understanding Sets and their unique functions

🔋 Section 4: Data Science and Advanced Topics

• Generating Random Numbers, using Math and Data Science Functions
• Handling Exceptions and creating Raising Exceptions
• Writing robust code with Exception Handling and 'finally'
• Performing File I/O operations
• Using List Comprehensions and the Ternary Operator for more readable code

🎨 Section 5: Regular Expressions

• Mastering Character Matching, Data Extraction, and Combining Searching with Extracting
• Understanding the Escape Character and learning how to use grep

🧱 Section 6: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

• Creating and using Classes, understanding Properties and Modules
• Implementing Data Hiding with Dunder/Magic Methods
• Exploring Inheritance and class methods, including Static and Class methods
• Crafting a basic GUI application with Tkinter

🚀 Section 7: Functional Programming

• Introducing the concepts of Functional Programming
• Working with First-Class Functions, Anonymous Functions (Lambda Expressions)
• Utilizing Iterators, Generators, and Decorators for efficient code
• Exploring Higher-Order Functions like 'map' and 'filter'

🎉 Section 8: Capstone Project

• Challenging yourself with a Final Exam to test your knowledge
• Applying what you've learned in a practical Capstone project

Optional Resources: To complement your learning experience, we recommend the following textbooks, available for purchase or rental at various prices:

• "Practical Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science Using Python 3"
• "Python for Everybody: Exploring Data in Python 3"
• "Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition"

Join us on this exciting programming adventure! With the guidance of Daniel Szelogowski, M.S., and a curriculum designed to cover all the essentials, you'll be well on your way to becoming a proficient Python programmer and beyond. 💻🚀

Enroll now and unlock your potential in the world of programming! 🎉