Discovering Computer Science

**Discovering Computer Science: Interdisciplinary Problems, Principles, and

Python Programming** introduces computational problem solving as a vehicle of

discovery in a wide variety of disciplines. With a principles-oriented

introduction to computational thinking, the text provides a broader and deeper

introduction to computer science than typical introductory programming books.

Organized around interdisciplinary problem domains, rather than programming

language features, each chapter guides students through increasingly

sophisticated algorithmic and programming techniques. The author uses a spiral

approach to introduce Python language features in increasingly complex

contexts as the book progresses.

The text places programming in the context of fundamental computer science

principles, such as abstraction, efficiency, and algorithmic techniques, and

offers overviews of fundamental topics that are traditionally put off until

later courses.

The book includes thirty well-developed independent projects that encourage

students to explore questions across disciplinary boundaries. Each is

motivated by a problem that students can investigate by developing algorithms

and implementing them as Python programs.

The book's accompanying website — — includes

sample code and data files, pointers for further exploration, errata, and

links to Python language references.

Containing over 600 homework exercises and over 300 integrated reflection

questions, this textbook is appropriate for a first computer science course

for computer science majors, an introductory scientific computing course or,

at a slower pace, any introductory computer science course.