---
# System prepended metadata

title: lesson-11
tags: [python-course]

---

# A final word


:::info
:bulb: In this lesson students learn about how to use the matplotlib third-party package to plot data.
:::

:::success
:movie_camera: VIB background fading to course title slide. James and Ninas smiling faces appear.
:::

:::warning
:notes: Upbeat intro music
:::
 scene 1
 
**Nina**: Hopefully at this point (the end of the course) you're feeling quite confident since you've learned everything necessary to start programming in Python: you're now a Pythonista!

**James**: We've explored some of the fundamentals of programming during this course. You've used the Python programming language for this, but many of the essential skills you need to write useful programs can be applied in other programming languages too. 
Nina, can you list some of these skills?

**Nina**: Sobbing in dispair, staring at the screen for hours pulling your hair out (laughs). B ut for real, variables, functions, data types, data manipulation, ...

 scene 2

**James**: If you're not feeling confident, that's ok. This course has required you to take in, understand, and apply an enormous amount of new knowledge. The best thing you can do now is try to practice, try to use what you've learned wherever you get an opportunity.

**Nina**: Absolutely! The most important thing you can do is just start using Python. Make opportunities to use Python: automate tasks that you (or other people) usually do manually, perform calculations, or do some data analysis.

**James**: Ignore any fear or uncertainty you have. Believe in yourself. Yes, you will stumble, you will have troubles achieving what you want to do - but you will also succeed and learn how to solve the problems you face. Before you realise, the things you initially feared won't scare you any more.

**Nina**: And when you do face a problem you can't solve, there are many resources available to help you including,
* Us! Send us an email and we can try to help you solve the problem.
* Stack Overflow. This is a community of programmers dedicated to helping each other. There's a good chance someone else has had the problem you have and someone else has solved it.
* The Python documentation including the `help()` function. docs.python.org is organised to guide you to the right place. You can look here for reference material.
 
 scene 3
 
**James**: We do however think you should be very careful when using tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot. They can sometimes be useful if you know what you're doing but can hurt your learning journey. At least, try on your own before reaching for these assistants. 

**Nina**: If this course is enough to get you started then you might wonder what your next steps could be. Once again there are many but here is a list you might consider...

:::success
:movie_camera: Show this list in the background.

* The Hitchikers Guide to Python
* VIB Advanced Python Course
* VIB Data Analysis with Python course
* VIB Introduction to Machine Learning course
* VIB Deep Learning in Biology course

:::

 scene 4

**James**: Thank you for staying with us for the duration of this course. We hope you enjoyed it and we wish you the best building your programming toolbox.

**Nina**: Congratulations on completing the course! Happy programming.