This book provides a method for quickly comprehending finite and spectral element methods. Its friendly format is designed as a self-contained course that discusses the fundamentals on a need-to-know basis and emphasizes the development of functional algorithms. It includes the basics on prototypes of heat and mass transfer governed by the convection-diffusion equation with algorithms, all while avoiding "heavy" mathematics. It also covers fluid mechanics, convective transport, structural mechanics, and other disciplines as extensions of the basic approach. A library of MATLAB functions and scripts constituting complete finite and spectral element codes accompanies the text.