CSE 121 Lesson 1:

Printing, Strings, and Variables

Matt Wang & Brett Wortzman
Autumn 2024
Abby Afifah Ailsa Alice Aliyan Arohan

Chloë Christopher Dalton Derek Elizabeth Ethan

TAs:
Hanna Hannah Heather Hibbah Janvi Jasmine

Judy Julia Kelsey Lucas Luke Mahima

Maitreyi Maria Merav Minh Neha Ronald

Ruslana Sahej Sam Samrutha Sushma Vivian

sli.do #cse121 Yijia Zachary Today’s playlist:

121 24au lecture tunes

Lesson 1 - Autumn 2024 1

Announcements, Reminders
• Check out website for links to all activities, materials
• Creative Project 0 will be out tonight, due Wed Oct 2
• Section Work 0 (survey) extended to Sun Sep 29
• one-time extension (see: website instructions on forms)
• important Google Forms works for 121
• New Ed materials: Sandbox
• Matt’s office hours are out (incl. one today at 12:30)

Lesson 1 - Autumn 2024 2

Aside: office hours as a resource!
The IPL (TA office hours) will open on Monday (Sep 30)
• one of the best parts of the course!!
• but: TAs are instructed to not just give you the answer!
• why not? you wouldn’t be learning!
• e.g. “my code doesn’t work” versus “I tried X, expected Y, but got Z. Any
thoughts on what to try next?”

Will get another announcement in Ed about this soon!

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Intro Survey – things we’re excited for!
• “Just learning the basics of how to code honestly. It's something I've
always wanted to learn and I'm excited to jump in.”
• “I have never taken a CS class, so I really don't know what to expect.
I'm excited to learn and to see if I'm interested in this field.”
• “Learning Java and how I can use this language to help others”
• “Writing codes that can do cool stuff (I don't know what cool stuff
I'm referring to tho)”
• “Being able to problem solve while being creative”
• “Learning how to code and meet friends!!”

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Reassuring worries from intro survey (1/3)
Common: responses along the lines of…
• “not knowing Java beforehand”
• “I'm most nervous about my lack of experience with computer science.”
• “I don't know at all how to code in Java.”
• “Having zero experience in coding or comp sci.”
• “Not having enough experience to succeed.”

We’re all in the same boat here, and you’re in the right place!
This class expects zero prior knowledge.

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Reassuring worries from intro survey (2/3)
Difficulty, workload, pace, & falling behind
• recognizing that programming can be difficult (if it was easy: why have a class?)
• as a result, have built many support systems (section, IPL, office hours, Ed, etc.)
• if you feel like you’re struggling: reach out early!
• especially with pace of quarter system

Grades, competitiveness, this class being a “weed-out” class

• explicitly not the goal of this class
• course designed against this (minimum grade guarantees, resubmissions, etc.)

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Reassuring worries from intro survey (3/3)
Time management
• can be tricky – especially if you’re starting college this quarter!
• biggest advice: start early (and give yourself time to ask for help)

Struggling with technology / not being a computer person / Ed is new

• this can be hard (and is important)! if you’re confused – please ask!
• along the way, we’ll teach some small skills (e.g. searching “smart”, shortcuts)

Not being a math or STEM “person”

• in our opinion, everybody can be a math or STEM person :)
• fun fact: some of our CSE professors were originally completely different majors!!
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Finding groups?
A good chunk of people asked about finding study groups!
Some thoughts:
• as you’ll see today, we do lots of pair/group learning in class.
vibe well with someone? ask them to study :)
• say hi to folks in section, office hours, and the IPL!
• sit beside someone!

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Some fun things about y’all…
• “I also do arigumi!”
• “I deadlift 600lbs”
• “I slept through an earthquake.”
• “I'm platinum 1 in Valorant”
• “I am a certified rescue scuba diver!”
• “I've kissed a stingray before.”
• “I am in the Pixar movie Cars.”

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… and some fun facts!
• “Platypuses are venomous”
• “That giraffes have blue tongues?”
• “Scotland's national animal is the unicorn.” (x2!!)
• “Australia is wider than the moon”
• “Lighters were invented before matches”
• “The probability of you getting killed by a cow is low, but never zero”
• “one billion lions could totally beat the sun”

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Syllabus Agenda (6/7)
• About us • Tools and resources
• About this course • Course Website
• Learning objectives • Ed
• Other similar courses • Assessment and grading
• Course components • Collaboration
• Our learning model

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Assessment
• Our goal in the course is for you to gain proficiency of the concepts
and skills we teach
• We assess your proficiency by asking you to apply the concepts and
skills on tasks or problems
• By necessity, we are assessing your work as a proxy for your
proficiency

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Grading (1/2)
Grades should reflect proficiency in course objectives.

All assignments, quizzes, and exams will be graded with an “E/S/N” grade:
• E (Excellent)
• S (Satisfactory)
• N (Not Yet)

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Grading (2/2)
E/S/N grades per assessment type:
• Programming Assignment: 4 (4 assignments, 16 total)
• Creative Projects: 1 (4 projects, 4 total)
• Quizzes: 3 (3 quizzes, 9 total)
• Final Exam: 6
We also “drop” your lowest 2 quiz/final exam grades.

For more information – see syllabus!

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Resubmissions
Learning takes time and doesn’t always happen on the first try!

Each week, one previous assignment or project can be resubmitted.

• Must be accompanied by write-up explaining change (reflection!)
• Grade on your resubmission replaces original grade
• Assignments eligible to resubmit for only 3 “cycles” after feedback released

We’ll discuss this more when our first assignment is graded; also, see syllabus!

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Syllabus Agenda (7/7)
• About us • Tools and resources
• About this course • Course Website
• Learning objectives • Ed
• Other similar courses • Assessment and grading
• Course components • Collaboration
• Our learning model

Lesson 1 - Autumn 2024 16

Collaboration Policy
When we assess your work in this class, we need to know that it’s yours.
Unless otherwise specified, all graded work must be completed individually.

Some rules to highlight:

• do not share your own solution code or view solution code from any
source – including but not limited to other students, tutors, or the internet
• do not use AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) on graded work in any capacity

See syllabus for more details (this is very important to understand).

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Activities in Class
• Goal: To get you actively • Common Format: Think, Pair,
participating in your learning! Share
• Question is posed
• Think about the question on
• May ask you to think and your own
volunteer a suggestion • Pair up with your neighbor and
• May ask you poll in with a discuss the question
response (via slido) • Focus on how you arrived at your
answers, whether they're the
• Not graded but strongly same or different!
encouraged to maximize your • Share what you discussed with
learning and use of class time! the rest of the class!

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 Poll in with your answer!
How many lines of output would the
following code produce? sli.do #cse121

System.out.println("hello");
a) 1
System.out.print("moi"); b) 2
System.out.print("bonjour");
System.out.println("pryvit"); c) 3
System.out.print("nihao");
System.out.println("hola"); d) 5
e) 6

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 ☕ Food for Thought 🥑🍱🧋
An occasional module where we talk about bigger-picture ideas in
computer science related to our lecture topic(s) of the week.

Goals:
1. give you “conversational familiarity” with CS terminology
2. see how CS interacts with other fields and people!
3. point you in the direction of more CSE (or adjacent) classes

Note: not tested content. Just food for thought :)

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What's in a (variable) name or String?
Switch over to Ed and do some experiments (with a partner)!
Then, report back on sli.do.

1. What types of characters are “allowed” in Strings?

2. What types of characters are “allowed” in variable names?

sli.do #cse121

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Dessert for Thought!
This is the beginning of a very interesting rabbit hole!
But also, a decision made by the Java designers.

You will also make decisions like these!

• for example, what is a “valid name”?
• something to reflect on as you learn more about CS…

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Announcements, Reminders (again)
• Check out website for links to all activities, materials
• Creative Project 0 will be out tonight, due Wed Oct 2
• Section Work 0 (survey) extended to Sun Sep 29
• one-time extension (see: website instructions on forms)
• important Google Forms works for 121
• New Ed materials: Sandbox
• Matt’s office hours are out (incl. one today at 12:30)

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