CS 152: Computer Programming Fundamentals

Instructor:

Brooke Chenoweth
Department of Computer Science
Email: bchenoweth@cs.unm.edu (Include course number in a meaningful subject line, please)
Office: FEC 2060
Office Hours: Mondays 2:30pm-4:00pm in person, Thursdays 2:30pm-4:00pm via Zoom, or by appointment

Lectures

Lectures are 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm MWF Collaborative Teaching & Learn 300

Labs and Section Leaders

Lab 001

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm Wednesday
Location: Centennial Engineering Center 1032
Section Leader: Tyler Smith
- Email: tsmith35@unm.edu

Lab 002

Time: 3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Wednesday
Location: Centennial Engineering Center 1032
Section Leader: Andres Lucero
- Email: alucero20@unm.edu

Lab 003

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm Tuesday
Location: Woodward Lecture Hall 147
Section Leader: Noah Litz
- Email: litz@unm.edu

Lab 006

Time: 9:30 am - 10:20 am Tuesday
Location: Centennial Engineering Center 1030
Section Leader: An Vo
- Email: anhdao@unm.edu

Feel free to go to any of the section leaders for help. You aren't limited to the assistant for your own section.

Course Description

CS-152 is an introduction to the art of computing. This course has several goals. Students who successfully complete the course should have a firm grasp on creating small programs in Java, should be able to solve problems with code, should have a more full idea of what Computer Science as a field is, and most importantly not be afraid to dive into code!

The primary emphasis of this course is to develop fluency in working with conditional control flow, looping structures, and procedural programming techniques. The secondary emphasis is to apply those skills in solving computational problems.

CS-152 is a project based course: students spend many hours writing programs that have a wide range of applications. In past semesters these have included business applications, multimedia manipulations, video games, simulations of complex systems, and scientific models.

CS-152 is currently taught using the Java programming language.

While Java is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) language and while students in CS-152 will certainly be working with Objects, CS-152 is not a course on OOP. Experienced Java programmers with solid skills in control flow, procedural programming and computational problem solving should skip CS-152 and take CS-251 (Intermediate Programming). CS-251 is also currently taught in Java and its primary emphasis is on understanding, developing and applying OOP skills.

Syllabus

Updated 2026-08-24 with office hours

UNM Canvas

Handy References and Links

CS 152 Code Standards

Java

Software
- Download IntelliJ IDEA
- Download the JDK from Oracle
  - You can download and install the a version of the JDK directly from within IntelliJ, but often you'll want/need to manually install a version from elsewhere.
Reference Material
Learn more online
- Introduction of Programming Using Java - A free, online textbook that you may find helpful.
- Coding Bat Java coding practice online

Past exams

Lectures and Assignments

Week 1

Monday, August 17: Welcome and Intro
Wednesday, August 19: Variables and Types
- Introduce IntelliJ
- Describe ASCII Art assignment
Friday, August 21: Continue with variables
- Program Organization
No lab meetings this week
- There are no lab sessions meeting this first week, only the MWF 12pm lectures.
- The lab rooms should still be available if you want to use them as a working space, or just make sure you know where they are for next week.
- Make sure you have installed the JDK and IntelliJ on whichever computer you will be using for this course. (Some students use personal laptops, some carry their working files on a thumb drive, some keep everything in the cloud and download onto whichever lab machine they are using. Whatever you choose, make sure the configuration will work for you now.)
- Test your setup by compiling and running a Hello World program
- If you have any technical difficulties, please contact one of us for help so we can get you set up before you get working on the first lab assignment.
Project 1: ASCII Art
- Due Friday, August 28
- This assignment is to make sure you aren't having trouble installing and setting up your tools. It shouldn't be much more complicated than the hello world example from my slides. Please don't overthink it.
- You may want to use an online ASCII text generator rather than creating the ASCII art completely from scratch.
- Submit to Canvas before the deadline. There is a small survey you'll need to complete before you can turn in your code.

Week 2

Monday, August 24: Expressions and Operators
Wednesday, August 26: Continue expressions
- if and while
Friday, August 28: Describe project 2
- do..while and for
Lab Session Exercise: Instructions
- WelcomeToCS.java file for you to edit
Project 2: Guessing Numbers
- Due Friday, Sept 4
- InteractiveDemo demonstrates some concepts you will use in this assignment.

Week 3

Monday, August 31: Go over quiz 2
- In lecture group exercise
Wednesday, September 2: Go over quiz 3
- Coding Standards
- Misc topics from Monday's group exercise
Friday, September 4: Describe project 3
Project 3: Drawing with Points
- Due Wednesday, September 16
- PointWindow.java
- Example uses of PointWindow
  - SnakeDemo
  - CircleDemo
  - Mystery Shape Run this file to be able to answer the quiz question.

Week 4

Monday, September 7: No classes for Labor Day holiday
Wednesday, September 9: Switch statement
Friday, September 11: Go over quiz 4
- Strings
- Documentation for Java's String class

Week 5

Monday, September 14: Methods
Wednesday, September 16: Methods example, printing star patterns
Friday, September 18: Go over quiz 5
- Describe project 4
Project 4: Welcome to Methods
- MethodPractice.java Implement the methods in this file.
- MethodPracticeTests.java Test your methods with this file.
- Part 1 (writing new tests) is due Wednesday, September 23
  - After submitting MethodsPracticeTests.java on Canvas, you will have access to a more extensive testing file.
  - I'm okay if some of your test lines are over 80 characters in this file.
- Part 2 (your method implementations) is due Monday, September 28

Week 6

Monday, September 21: Arrays
Wednesday, September 23: Go over quiz 6
Friday, September 25

Week 7

Monday, September 28
Wednesday, September 30
Friday, October 2

Week 8

Monday, October 5: Review for midterm
Wednesday, October 7 Midterm exam
- You may bring with you a single sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. You may write on both sides. You may type it on a computer.
- The test is closed book, closed laptop, closed phone, closed friends. You can only use the single sheet of paper and whatever is in your brains. You may also bring a calculator to perform basic arithmetic.
Friday, October 9: No class during Fall Break

Week 9

Monday, October 12
Wednesday, October 14
Friday, October 16

Week 10

Monday, October 19
Wednesday, October 21
Friday, October 23

Week 11

Monday, October 26
Wednesday, October 28
Friday, October 30

Week 12

Monday, November 2
Wednesday, November 4
Friday, November 6

Week 13

Monday, November 9
Wednesday, November 11
Friday, November 13

Week 14

Monday, November 16
Wednesday, November 18
Friday, November 20

Week 15

Monday, November 23
Wednesday, November 25
Friday, November 27: No class during Thanksgiving Break

Week 16

Monday, November 30
Wednesday, December 2: Review for final
Friday, December 4: Final exam (during regular lecture time/location)
- You may bring with you a single sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. You may write on both sides. You may type it on a computer.
- The test is closed book, closed laptop, closed phone, closed friends. You can only use the single sheet of paper and whatever is in your brains. You may also bring a calculator to perform basic arithmetic.

Finals Week

You took your final last week, so go deal with your other classes now.
It's finals week, so I won't be having my usual office hours, but will be checking my email and Canvas messages.