Suggested 15-Week Lesson Plan

The table below maps each week of a standard 15-week instructional semester to one or more chapters in this book. The final exam normally follows in a separate exam week. Weeks with heavier content assume two or three class meetings; instructors can move optional material into labs, projects, or review days as needed.

The quiz, lab, and AI project columns are suggestions only and remain at the discretion of the instructor. One possible assessment rhythm is intentionally regular: short quizzes occur every other week starting in week 2, in-class lab assignments are due weekly, and a semester-long AI project develops through three checkpoints before a final demonstration and design walkthrough.

Week	Topic	Chapter(s)	Quiz	Lab	AI Project
1	Course overview, motivation, hardware, software, and environment setup	Context, Hardware and Software		Lab 1	Project introduced
2	The terminal, shell commands, and running Python scripts	The Terminal	Quiz 1	Lab 2
3	Data types, variables, expressions, and basic I/O	Python Data and Operations		Lab 3
4	Strings, string methods, and user input	Basic String Operations, User Input	Quiz 2	Lab 4
5	Decisions and conditional logic	Decisions		Lab 5	Checkpoint 1: proposal and design sketch
6	Functions, modules, imports, and variable scope	Defining Functions of Your Own, Modules and Variable Scope	Quiz 3	Lab 6
7	Midterm review and assessment. While loops and interactive programs	While Loops		Lab 7
8	For loops, ranges, list comprehensions, and error handling	For Loops, Error Handling	Quiz 4	Lab 8
9	Files, paths, directories, and reading/writing data	Files, Paths, and Directories		Lab 9	Checkpoint 2: working prototype
10	Lists and tuples	Lists, Tuples	Quiz 5	Lab 10
11	Dictionaries, lists of dictionaries, and dictionary algorithms	Dictionaries, Lists of Dictionaries, Dictionary Algorithms		Lab 11
12	Internet data, APIs, and JSON	Internet Data	Quiz 6	Lab 12
13	Introductory data analysis with pandas and plotting	Data Analysis with Pandas		Lab 13	Checkpoint 3: integrated version and reflection
14	Simulation and applied data case studies	Monte Carlo Simulation, Case Studies	Quiz 7	Lab 14
15	Terminal user interfaces, integration, and final review	Terminal User Interfaces with Rich and Textual		Lab 15	Practice demonstration
Final exam week	Final assessment period		Quiz 8		Final demonstration and design walkthrough

Advanced and Optional Topics

The following chapters extend the curriculum beyond the 15-week core. They are suitable for an honors section, a second course, or as enrichment for students who finish early.

Topic	Chapter
Classes and object-oriented programming	Classes and Object-Oriented Programming
Testing with pytest	Testing
Recursion	Recursion
Data structures (linked lists, stacks, queues)	Data Structures
Linear algebra foundations for computing	Linear Algebra in Python