Course - Computer Science
CSCI-1200-010
Lectures – Wed/Fri, 12:00-1:15pm in room ATLS 100
Recitations – Mondays, various times, in room ECCR 244
Instructor - Professor Clarence (Skip) Ellis
Office - Engineering Center ECOT-747
Phone - 303-492-5984 (with answering machine)
Email -
Fax - 303-492-2844
Office hours in ECOT-747 –
Fridays, 10:00am – 11:00am and 4:00 –
5:00pm; and by appointment
Teaching
Assistants:
Hadjar Homaei (email is Hadjar.Homaei@colorado.edu).
Office
hours in ECCR-252 –
Tuesdays,
Wednesdays,
Shuxin Nie (email is Shuxin.Nie@colorado.edu)
Office hours in ECCR-252 –
Tuesdays,
and by appointment
Overview:
Computer Science 1200 (CSCI-1200) is a general introductory course for
non-computer science majors (and non-engineering majors). There are no
prerequisites for 1200, but it is assumed that all students have experience
using some personal computer, some word processor, some electronic mail system,
and the Internet (WWW). This class will introduce important concepts of
computing, including hardware, software, communications networks, and
programming. The
Note that CSCI-1200 is NOT predominantly a programming course. The majority of computer users today do not program. The majority of the students in 1200 will not become programmers, but will use computer applications and concepts heavily. Thus, the content of this course is a broad introduction to computing with less than half of the course devoted to programming. If you have prior computer experience, and are interested in REALLY learning a programming language, then you should take CSCI 1300 instead of this course.
Grading:
There will be ten homework assignments and three in-class exams. There will be
no final exam. Homework will count for 50% of your final grade; exams 50%. Each
homework assignment is due at
For all homework and exam scores, A's are in the 90s, B's are in the 80s, C's are in the 70s, D’s are in the 60s, F is below 60.
Course Structure:
Each student must be registered for lectures and one recitation section.
Recitation sections meet in the computer lab (Engineering Center ECCR 244) for
hands-on instruction, and all meet on Mondays beginning
The text is “Computer Science, An Overview” by Brookshear
(eighth edition), for the conceptual computer science portion of the course. The
optional second text is “Learning to Program with
Online Course Material:
Homework assignments, a course bulletin board, student scores and grades, and
other course material are available via the university’s WebCT system on the
Internet World Wide Web. Registered students can obtain all of this further
information by following links from the home page of WebCT:
http://webct.colorado.edu
Webct will ask for your user name; type in your
Asking for Help versus Working
Together:
You can get help from teaching assistants and your fellow students in this
class, but your approach should be similar to what productive computer users do
in the work place: Do as much as you can on your own, using all the resources
available (manuals, on-line help, class notes, etc.) If you get stuck,
formulate a clear and specific question, and ask that. When you get an answer,
try out several variations of it to be sure that you understand, and you won't
have to ask that question again. Please note that asking for help from another
student when you're stuck, which is encouraged, is not the same as working together
to do an assignment. That is NOT encouraged. You need to develop and practice
your own problem-solving skills for computer applications and programming.
Copying other students' work, or programs from the Internet, is plagiarism, and
is strictly forbidden. It can result in zero grades on assignments, and an
automatic F grade in the course.
**Exam dates: exam1 =