CSU101: Computer
Science and its Applications
Summer 2009
Course Syllabus
Instructor:
Jeff Satterley
Office: 460 West Villiage H
Email: jsatt@ccs.neu.edu
Homepage: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jsatt
Class Location:
210 West Village H
Course Webpage: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jsatt/classes/summer09/csu101
Office Hours: Monday 2-3pm,
Wednesday 2-3pm, or by appointment
Course Objectives: This is a course in the concepts of computer science and
their application in a series of useful software products. Essentially,
we'll discuss how to solve problems using the kinds of software we will
be studying. The goals of the course include teaching some basic notions
about structure and design in spreadsheets and relational databases, problem
solving and conceptualization, statistics and graphs. The particular
software applications we will be exploring are: Excel (spreadsheets), Access
(relational databases), both part of Microsoft Office, and SPSS (statistics package), not
part of Office.
Course
Format: There are four class sessions
per week, all held in a computer lab. Class sessions will consist of
lecture/discussion of the material, lab exercises and time to work on lab
assignments (i.e., homeworks).Completed labs will be submitted for grading
through the assignments section of Blackboard for this class. There will be
three (3) exams, two (2) quizzes, and assigned lab homeworks (exact number to be
determined). Exams will be based upon the material from the labs and
quizzes, and the quizzes will be based upon the material in the labs and
material from class. While you may work on assignments with others, we require
that all of your work submitted for grading be your own, not copied in whole or
in part from anyone. Students are expected to read and understand the
Northeastern University Academic Honesty Policy found at http://www.neu.edu/osccr/academichonesty.html#Cheating.
Students submitting labs, quizzes or exams, which are copied from others
(in whole or in part) will receive an immediate zero
for that work, and may be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict
Resolution.
The exams will count for 45% of your overall
grade, the quizzes will count for 15%, and labs will count for 40%. You may
need to spend more time working on the labs than the time available in class.
You can use the lab in WVH 102 (on the first floor) or any of the other open
labs on campus. If you work on your own
computer, make sure you are using the right software. We will be using
Microsoft Office 2007 for both Excel and Access. Microsoft Works does
not work for this purpose. You can use MS Office 2000 or later; however,
you may need a conversion plugin for your work from a lab computer to be
readable on your machine (You can download this from Microsoft's website, and
it should be suggested automatically if you try to open a file from a newer
version of Office). SPSS is a big expensive piece of software, so it is
not likely that you will want to put it on your computer (legally). Expect to
use it in a school lab on campus.
The due date of each lab will be posted on both Blackboard and the course web site when it is assigned. Late labs will not be accepted without a valid excuse, including documentation. As previously mentioned, we use Blackboard to collect lab assignments, to broadcast important messages, and to keep you informed of what of your work we have and what is missing.
I reserve the right to take attendance at any time during class. Students found absent three times (without a documented excuse) when attendance is checked will lose 3 pts from their final grade (for each three missed classes).
There is a scheduled final exam for this course during finals week. Students who miss exams during the semester are required to make them up during the regularly scheduled exam during finals week. For all other students, the final exam is optional. Grades earned on parts of the final exam will replace grades on the corresponding exams given during the semester. This gives students another opportunity to demonstrate competency with the material.
Textbooks:
Required: none.
Recommended:
1. John Walkenback, Excel
2007 Bible. Wiley paperback. ($23.99)
2. Roger Jennings, Special Edition
Using Microsoft Office Access 2007 ($31.49)
3. Erich Neuwirth and Dean
Arganbright, Mathematical Modeling with Microsoft Excel, Thomson/Brooks-Cole
2004
4. Cary N. Prague, Michael R. Irwin, Jennifer Reardon, Access 2003
Bible. Wiley paperback.
5. Green and Salkind, Using SPSS for Windows and
Macintosh. Prentice Hall paperback.
These books are exhaustive guides to
the various features of their respective software. Not everyone will have an
interest in this much information. That is why these books are not required.
However, if you decide to become an expert in one of these programs, this is the
sort of thing you should work through. All of these books do a good job at
covering most of the important material. Copies of the first two books should be
available in the lab in room 102 West Village H.
Course Web Site: All updates for this
class will appear on the course web page: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jsatt/classes/summer09/csu101.
All information here will also be posted on Blackboard, under the
appropriate section.