Instructor Guide
Instructions and recommendations for effective curriculum implementation.
Preparation
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Become familiar with the curriculum, including the Course Overview and the session plans provided in the Teacher Resources.
Follow the Machine Learning Environment Setup Guide to install Miniconda and Spyder.
Bring and distribute USB drives in order for students to save and take home their projects. Students can also save to a cloud service if USB drives are unavailable.
To save their work, they will just need to copy the .py file. In later lessons when students use external files, they will also need to save those files in the same location as the .py file.
Setting Up
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For all student workstations:
Follow the Machine Learning Environment Setup Guide to install Miniconda and Spyder.
The guide will also explain how to use conda to install all the necessary modules used in the lessons for machine learning.
Add a desktop shortcut to Spyder.
Add a desktop shortcut to the course website.
If students are using their own computers then they should be sent the Machine Learning Environment Setup Guide at least a week before the first class so that they can prepare their own computers.
Teaching Assistants
- Training for teaching assistants is encouraged. This provides the lead teacher the opportunity to get to know the TAs and define expectations for them.
Suggested TA expectations include:- Be attentive to lessons and announcements intended for the entire class. Assisting students while the teacher is addressing the class causes students (and TAs) to miss important information.
- Actively and regularly survey student progress when there are no students seeking assistance.
- Consider assigning a teacher-led lesson to TAs who are capable and comfortable with this task. Doing so will provide a possibly refreshing change for students, help the students get to know and become comfortable with the TAs, and help the TA develop (possibly eventually becoming a lead teacher).
Problem Solving
Spyder Problems:
On some computers, creating a new project in Spyder can result in the program not responding for a few seconds.
If this happens then do not click on anything and just let the program load for a few seconds. It will start responding again and the new project will be created.
If Spyder ever does fully stop responding then close the program and reopen it. It should open straight into the project you had open last.
Spyder will try to recover unsaved work in case of a crash but it doesn't always work. This is why saving is so important.
Please read this Spyder Troubleshooting Guide and FAQ for information on how to fix certain problems with the IDE.
Syntax Problems:
A common issue that may occur is that a student's code may not work correctly.
The most likely problem is that the student has spelled something wrong, forgot to indent or has other syntax errors.
The console may provide some information as to which line has the error but if not, a student may need to read through the code they have written to make sure everything is correct.
Program Works but Acts Strangely:
Sometimes there are no errors in code, but when the program is run, it doesn't work as planned.
This usually happens when values used in code are incorrect.
Unfortunately, there is no easy fix for problems like this and the best thing to do is go back through the lesson to make sure everything was done correctly.
Sometimes a lesson may tell students to experiment with values. In this case, some values may be too extreme to work in the game so they should try using different values to see what does work.
Other Issues:
When it comes to development, anything can happen which means there will always be unknown problems.
The best way to handle problems, is to prevent them in the first place with good practices.
Students should save often. This can be done using CTRL + S or by clicking File -> Save in the top left of Spyder.
Students should also read steps in lessons carefully and take extra care when spelling to avoid later errors.