Making Sense of Hardware and Programming

Computer Science Foundations 1 students have wrapped up learning about Computing Systems: Hardware and Programming.  Their project for this unit was to create a diagram labeling the top 5 internal parts of a computer.  However, their diagram had to be based on a metaphor showing the relationship between the parts of a computer along with a justification for their representations.  There projects had to have the following:

• Name 5 Key hardware parts of a computer
• Explain what each part does for a computer
• Explain how those parts interact with each other to help a computer function.

Students were given a few ideas to get them started such as:

• City Buildings and Streets
• Dinner plate and food
• Video game
• Space ship
• Human body (the easiest and most popular)

Here are a few exceptionally creative project metaphors:

This project also had a write up explaining each of the part and why they choose a Raman bowl as their representation.  I love the “Grace Hopper” touch considering how she is one of the founding mothers of technology and the creator of “Software”.

This project used working out and the gym as their metaphor.  Students were given free choice in how they wanted to represent and present their projects.  They were also given the choice to work in teams or individually.  This was a project done by two students working together.

Stay tuned for more excellent examples of students’ work and follow their progress as they learn more about computer science!