Blog #4 - Days 6-8

     I don't have many regrets about my high school experience, but something that I do wish I had done differently was taken a few coding classes during my time at Hawken. Given that I am probably looking to go into a statistics-related field when I graduate college, it would have been very useful for me to learn some of the most popular programming languages to prepare me for my future career. But alas, I shied away from any such courses, and, as a result, I will have to start with the basics of data science when I step foot on campus next fall.

    That being said, I previously recounted how last week, one of Ben's genius co-workers named Alex tried to teach me the basics of Python. Although I was very confused for the majority of the "lesson," I was starting to understand the language at its most elementary level. There was only one problem...just as I was beginning to pick it up, Alex went on vacation. 

    So...this past week, I have been working through an online Python course on codecademy.com so that Alex and I can continue our crash course when he returns this coming week.

    Day 6 was essentially getting started with Python syntax, as well as Boolean variables (True or False statements) and logical operators ("if", "else", "equals", etc.). 

    On Day 7, I learned how to work with lists and how to write a loop in a program. For example, if I wanted to print out a certain phrase one hundred times, I could use a "for" loop to do so instead of having to write out "print('x, y, and z')" one hundred times. 

    Finally, Day 8 was all about functions! Functions allow you to enter a particular input in order to create some output, and they can be reused so that you can complete a task multiple times with unique inputs. So this is a really useful skill to learn!

    I am so glad to have had this opportunity to begin developing my skills in the realm of data science, and I look forward to seeing how I am going to use these new abilities for whatever challenges Alex gives me.











An example of some code I wrote when learning how to work with functions!




Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 25, 2022 at 4:33 AM

    It's interesting how many things you're working on that you might not have fully anticipated (like coding in Python). I appreciate your insight on the need to code - that's certainly an area of interest as we look at what students need when they graduate. And it's amazing how many resources are out there to learn. The coding community worldwide has been very open in sharing and creating resources for those that want to learn - I'm glad you've gotten at least a small jump start before starting college. I'm sure there is much more to come.

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