The most straightforward way to write a Python program is to write your program in a text file, and run the program from the command line.
But for this workshop, we'll use a web-based Python environment called Jupyter Notebook so that we can try out bits of program code faster.
You can either install Python on your own laptop, or use a server provided by your class.
To install Python, we recommend using Anaconda: follow the instructions at https://www.continuum.io/downloads
If you have Python installed on your laptop, and you are running Mac or Linux, you can open a terminal and type
jupyter notebook
If everything is installed, this will launch Jupyter Notebook in a web browser. Click "New Notebook", and you're done.