In this assignment students work either individually or in pairs to write a program that plays the rock, paper, scissors with the user. Students must prompt the user for a choice of move, choose a move for the computer to make, and then display the results of the game. Students can choose whether their program plays honestly or cheats. This assignment requires students to work with basic console i/o and variables. It is particularly useful as a first assignment.

In this project students work either individually or in pairs to write an open-ended game loosely based on pool. Using VPython, students must write a pool-like game with a cue ball (or other object) that the player controls directly, other balls, walls, and some kind of hole in which the balls can fall (or other goal). These different objects must be able to interact simultaneously with some semblance of physics, either realistic or wacky. In addition to requiring students to work with graphics, this project allows students to work on creating their own programatic design. It is particularly useful for students who need additional practice designing and then implementing large programs.

In this project students work either individually or in pairs to write a program that generates random Picobots, robots that move around a world according to a set of rules, and creates subsequent generations by "mating" the "fittest" Picobots. Students must write at least two classes, one to represent a Picobot program and one to represent a Picobot world. They use these classes to generate a random generation of Picobots to begin and assess the fitness of each Picobot, mating them and outputting the results for each generation. In addition to reviewing classes, strings, and random number generation, this project requires students to design their own classes. It is particularly useful for students who need additional practice designing multiple, interacting classes.

In this project students work either individually or in pairs to write a text identification class that uses the Naive Bayes Classifier to determine what author is likely to have written a given text. Students are required to design a class that compiles features from a given text, such as word lengths, sentence lengths, and distribution of word-stems. They then use these features in the Naive Bayes algorithm to classify texts. In addition to reviewing string manipulation, this project requires students to design and document a class. It is particularly useful for students who need additional practice with strings and class design.

In this assignment students work either individually or in pairs to implement Markov text generation. Students must prompt the user for files to use as a model and then parse the files to create a k-th order Markov model, represented as a map of key words to the k words that can follow those words. Students then generate a random text using this map. In addition reviewing strings, dictionaries, and file i/o, this assignment requires students to design their own algorithm given basic specifications.

In this lab students work independently or collaboratively to develop a deeper understanding of using pre-defined and building custom functions within Python. Through the implementation and analysis of six functions, students practice creating docstrings to describe both the functionality of each function and the inputs associated with each function. Each function illustrates a particular core feature within Python (such as performing calculations, interpolating values, executing checksums). This lab is particularly useful for students with little experience writing functions and for those interested in more practice using pre-defined functions.

In this assignment students update an existing graphics class. Students must add methods to translate, rotate, scale, and flip arbitrary shapes using turtle graphics. They then use this class and additional subclasses to draw an image of their choice. In addition to reviewing graphics, this assignment requires students to work with a class hierarchy. It is particularly useful for students who need additional practice with classes.

In this assignment students work either individually or in pairs to implement and crack a simple version of RSA. As subproblems in generating RSA keys, students must generate random primes, calculate Euler's totient, and find the greatest common divisor of two numbers using Euclid's algorithm. They must then encrypt/decrypt messages using these keys and use brute force as an attack against encryption. In addition to reviewing brute force and recursive algorithms, this assignment requires students to write a program with multiple helper functions.

In this assignment students work either individually or in pairs to implement the Huffman Compression. Before beginning to code, students must write a software design document that plans the functions that they will use. The program itself must prompt the user for a file and then compress the file using Huffman Compression. In addition to reviewing trees and dictionaries, this assignment requires students to carefully design and test their code. It is particularly useful for students who are new to trees and need additional practice designing large programs that involve more complex data structures.

In this assignment students implement a basic security protocol in which a key is distributed to multiple parties such that a certain number of parties must combine their knowledge to learn the full key. In addition, this assignment reviews the concepts of random number generation and floating point numbers, as well as requiring students to design their own decomposition. It is particularly useful for students who need practice decomposing problems.