workshop overview

learning objectives

This workshop explores how the Python programming language takes data, organizes it into collections or groupings, with the goal of doing something to that data.

It introduces:

• data types and variables for categorizing and saving data

• functions and methods for working with data

• iterative and logical structures

• basic Python syntax

Google Colab environment

There are many ways to use Python. For this “Intro to Python” workshop, we will be using Google Colab, a browser-based tool for running Python code. Like Google Docs, Google Colab creates a collaborative environment hosted on the Google cloud for authoring content.

Whereas most Python environments require installations (some of which can be really complicated), Google Colab offers Python software pre-installed on the cloud environment. It enables new users to jump right into programming.

Google Colab creates an interactive coding environment where you can enter a Python expression into the black text box, called a “cell”, and execute, or “run,” the expression by pressing enter. Please see this tutorial for specifics on how to run Python within the Google Colab environment.