Post Members,

We've "set the date" for our annual Post Expo Night. Come and see the results of of our projects, from Hovercrafts to Rube Goldberg machines. There will be competitions and displays and you'll have a chance to show your family what you accomplished during your Project Meetings. See you there!

What: Explorer Post Expo Night
When: Monday, January 12th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Where: Lockheed Martin Bldg 6 Conference Room (same place as Registration Night)
For a map to the Lockheed Martin facility, you can check the 2008 Informational Mailing

Python Team,

This week's meeting will be held on WEDNESDAY, December 10th, 7:00-8:30PM. This will replace our usual Thursday night meeting.

Do not worry if you can't make it. You can send any code questions to the usual email address and we will be sure to help you.

Next week, we will have our last meeting on Thursday, December 18th.

2008 Rube Goldberg
Evaluation Criteria

The following scoring systems will be used to evaluate each Rube Goldberg Project.

Scoring each item will be performed by a panel of judges selected by the Rube Goldberg Advisors

Summarizing the scoring will be performed using a spreadsheet maintained by the Rube Goldberg Project Advisors.

Interpretation of the runs and criteria is the responsibility of the Rube Goldberg Advisors with the final ruling by the Project Lead.

Team,

Next week I want to see your updated design documents for your game.

Here is the link to the text adventure introduction I promised, please note it has THREE parts (check the nav bar on the right):
http://coolnamehere.com/geekery/python/ifiction/

That is all.

Explorers, your mission this week is to read a few tutorials on OO programming. We will discuss it further next week. If you have any questions, please contact your advisors using the usual methods. That is all.

• Start with the chapter 12,13, and 14 of the book How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - You may want to keep this link around for future reference.
• Here's a link to the classes section in the official Python tutorial: Python Tutorial

For an assignment, try to design a Hero and BadGuy class following the example in class.

How would you use an OO design for a card game like Blackjack or War?

Team,

Sorry for the late update! During Week 3 we reviewed the Rock-Paper-Scissors program and started our next assignment: Hangman!

Rules:
In hangman, the computer selects a word that the player has to guess one letter at a time. If the guess is a letter in the word it is revealed. If the guess is a letter not in the word, you lose a point (the player starts with 5 points) . If you reach zero points you lose. If you complete the word you win.

For your first steps, just assign a non-secret word and try to figure out the basic structure of the program. Once you get something working, can you make the computer pick a random word? If you get all of that done, can you modify the program to work with two players (first one to guess the word wins)?

As usual, if you have questions, please let us know.

Team, thanks again for your participation tonight. We reviewed last week's assignment and worked on a program that plays Rock Paper Scissors. For next week:

• Read the tutorial up to page 51.
• Complete the Rock Paper Scissors program described in the session handout. If you have any questions, let us know!
• If you finish, consider writing a program that calculates the odds of winning Rock, Paper, Scissors is 1/3 if both players choose randomly. You will need to have the computer play itself many times to show this.
• If you have trouble, take a look at the other two problems in the handout (guessing game and pig latin). You should be able to complete the guessing game. The pig latin one is more challenging. Good luck!

As mentioned in class, you may want to search the Python Libraray Reference for the random module to learn about the other functions it provides. If you missed the meeting, here's a way to generate a random number in Python. You may find it useful for this week's programs:

Python 2.5 (r25:51908, Apr 10 2007, 10:29:13) 
[GCC 4.1.2 20070403 (Red Hat 4.1.2-8)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from random import randint
>>> randint(0,2)
1
>>> randint(0,2)
2
>>> 

Advanced Robotics Class update!

Team,
Please read the first seven chapters of the Non-Programmers Tutorial for Python PDF Link

• Don't just read the text, run the programs. If you don't understand a part of a program, send us an email!
• At the very least, try to create the "Area" program described at the end of chapter 7.
• You can also start putting together a game. It doesn't have to be great. Just use Python to create something fun!
• Start thinking about some game ideas. You can discuss your ideas with your teammate next week.

Please bring the code you create (and any questions) to our meeting next week. You will not be required to share your code with the class, but volunteers will be welcome.

The project assignments have been completed for 2008. You be receiving an email from your project team very soon. The full list of project assignments is available here: 2008 Project Registrations

Your project team should be contacting you regarding your first meeting. Good luck with your projects!