Three Mini Projects

Name: Three Mini Projects
Author: StemPy Lab

Real programs are made of the small ideas that you already know, put together. In this course you plan and build three programs: a guessing game with a score, a quiz that marks your answers, and a grade book with a report. Each project starts with a plan and a table of expected answers, is built in small steps, keeps the thinking in small functions so that it can be tested, and ends with ideas for you to extend. A last lesson gives a checklist for finding the fault in your own programs, and shows where to go after the Foundations. The practice tests the functions of each project on many cases and tells you which ones fail.

4 lessons, about 2 h4 simulations14 problems8 practice questionsPython in every lesson

Created by StemPy Lab

Course outline (4 lessons)

Lesson 1about 30 min
Project 1: a number guessing game
A guessing game is built by planning first. The computer picks a secret number with random.randint, the player has a limited number of tries, and each wrong guess gets the hint Too low or Too high. The thinking goes into two small functions, judge and score_for, that have no input or print, so they can be tested alone. The loop continues while there are tries left and the player has not won, and a flag variable remembers the win. Test the win on the first try, the win on the last try, and the loss.
1 simulation2 practice questions2 Python programs3 problems2 Python labs
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Lesson 2about 35 min
Project 2: a quiz
A quiz keeps its questions in one list and its answers in another, in the same order, so that the same position belongs together. A loop goes through the positions with range of len, asks each question, and compares the reply with the answer. The comparison is a small function that ignores capital letters and spaces at the ends. A second function gives the percentage. If the two lists are not the same length, the loop reaches a position that one list does not have and Python shows an IndexError. Test the function with several replies, and extend the quiz with more questions and messages.
1 simulation2 practice questions3 Python programs4 problems2 Python labs1 question set
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Lesson 3about 30 min
Project 3: a grade book
A grade book turns raw marks into a report. The names and the marks are in two lists with the same position for the same student, and two small functions do the thinking: grade gives a letter for a mark, and average gives the mean of a list. A loop prints a line for each student with the columns lined up by f-string widths, then the class average and the highest mark, and marks.index finds the position of the highest mark, so names at that position is the name. Test the grade function at the edges. Extend the grade book by counting how many students got each grade.
1 simulation2 practice questions2 Python programs6 problems1 Python lab
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Lesson 4about 25 min
Fixing your own programs, and what next
A program that does not work is normal, and finding the fault is a skill. A checklist helps: read the error message from the bottom, find the line, reproduce the fault with the smallest input, follow the program by hand with a trace table, print the values inside the loop, check the edges, and change one thing at a time. When the program runs but the answer is wrong, compare with the expected answer worked out by hand. Keep the thinking in small functions so that each can be tested alone. After the Foundations, the next steps are dictionaries, tuples and sets, handling errors with try and except, modules, and larger projects in the Essentials level.
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program1 problem1 Python lab1 note
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Three Mini Projects

Course outline (4 lessons)

Project 1: a number guessing game

Project 2: a quiz

Project 3: a grade book

Fixing your own programs, and what next

Test Your Learning

Your teacher

Discussion (0)