Python for Beginners with an introduction to data analysis with Pandas

This comprehensive 15-hour course is designed to introduce participants to the fundamentals of programming using the Python language, while also providing an initial exposure to data analysis using the powerful Pandas library. The course is suitable for high school students, undergraduates, and adults with little to no prior programming experience. Through a series of engaging and hands-on classes held online, participants will gain a solid foundation in Python programming and develop essential skills for data manipulation and analysis.

Overall Learning Outcome

1. Gain a solid understanding of key programming concepts using Python
2. Write basic Python programs and understand code that is written by others
3. Builds a strong foundation for the student to further develop their coding skills on their own
4. Facilitate the use of innovative AI code-generation tools to increase coding productivity.
5. Learn mathematical and computational thinking skills that will become useful in any domain
6. Learn strategies for solving problems and communicating ideas
7. Use Pandas for data analysis

Summary of the course content :

• Understand the importance of programming and its applications in various fields.
• Learn about the Python interpreter and how to write and execute Python programs using IDLE (basic Python IDE).
• Explore basic data types, variables, expressions and statements, and operators in Python.
  • Keywords, type convertor functions, arithmetic operator precedence, user input
• Composing your program
• Modulo operator and its uses
• Learn some basic Python concepts using the turtle module
• Deepen your understanding of functions, parameters, and return values
• Learn how to use control structures (if statement, while and for loops)
• Writing a Guess the Number game and understanding how it works
• Overview of sequence types
• Using the Jupyter Notebook to further explore Python
• Explore the core Python data structures :
  • Sequences - strings, lists and tuples
• Explore the dictionary data type
• Learn about file handling
  • read, write and append
  • using the with statement to open a file
  • handle command-line arguments
  • understand files and path using the pathlib module
  • example of processing a real-world data file
• Modules and packages
• Handling errors and exceptions
  • Example of wrapping the float() built-in function to handle exceptions in a graceful manner
  • Using the wrapped function in an application
• Processing date and time
  • Using the datetime module to manipulate dates and time
  • timedelta and date arithmetic
  • Combining date and time components
  • Formatting and parsing datetime objects
• Debugging programs using IDLE
  • Introduction to using pdb, the Python command-line debugger
• Introduction to data analysis with Pandas
  • Explore more advanced concepts of data aggregation and group operations

This course is designed for participants who have little or no prior programming knowledge or experience but wish to learn the basics of programming using the powerful and popular Python language.

It is ideal for high school students and undergraduates as Python is now the top teaching language in leading universities worldwide and especially important in STEM.

No prior programming experience is required. Participants should be familiar with using a computer and common applications software.

The course fee is MYR980.00 per person.