Lesson overview

Today we will have our first taste of programming in Python. In order to start learning Python, however, we need to introduce you how we will work during the course using different tools including a dedicated computing environment, which is based on the principles of cloud computing. This first tutorial will introduce you to the basic components of the course environment, guide you through how they are used, and conclude with a hands-on introduction to some key concepts and elements of programming in Python. The main components of this first lesson are below.

  1. Lecture materials (+video)
  2. Basic concepts, components and, workflow of the course environment
  3. Introduction to the basic usage of the cloud computing environment
  4. Communicating and chatting with Slack
  5. Our first taste of Python
  6. Exercise 1: Creating a Github.com account and using the cloud

Note

There is a lot of material here but don’t worry, you will learn all these things quickly once we start working in practice.

Learning goals

After this weeks lesson your should be able to:

  • know what kind of tools we are using during the course
  • explain the basic concepts of a computer, a program, and a programming language
  • define and use variables
  • describe the concept of a data type and know how to determine the data type of a variable in Python