Two hundred answers in one sheet
A school sends out a survey about the canteen. By Friday 200 answers arrive in one sheet. Some are blank. Some say "yes", some say "Y", some say "yeah".
Nobody can make sense of 200 messy answers at once. The team needs a way to think about them. That way is computational thinking: a way of solving problems in clear steps.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can name the four parts of computational thinking and say what each one is for.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Computational thinking | A way of solving problems in steps that a person or a computer can follow | |
| Decomposition | Breaking a problem into smaller parts | split "the report is wrong" into the data, the sums and the chart |
| Pattern recognition | Spotting things that repeat or look alike | five bad rows all from one shop |
| Abstraction | Keeping the details that matter and hiding the rest | |
| Algorithmic design | Writing the steps of a solution in a clear order | |
| Algorithm | A set of clear steps, in order, that solves a problem |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter
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3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Computational thinking is a way to solve problems
Computational thinking means working on a problem in clear steps. You do not need a computer to do it. A person can follow the steps, and so can a computer.
Its purpose is to turn a messy problem into one you can solve. It makes the problem smaller, clearer and easier to share with a team.
The four parts, in data words
| Part | What you do | Data example |
|---|---|---|
| Decomposition | Break the problem into smaller parts | Split "the survey is a mess" into blanks, spellings and dates |
| Pattern recognition | Look for what repeats or matches | Ten bad rows all come from one class |
| Abstraction | Keep what matters, drop the rest | Ignore the font colour, keep the question and the answer |
| Algorithmic design | Write the steps in order | A checklist for cleaning a survey sheet |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
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3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.