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Instructions
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Instructor directions are listed below:
- Explain to students that the next type of engineering we will focus on is computer science.
- Ask students if they have any ideas as to what a computer scientist does.
- Explain that computer scientists write the code that tells our devices how to behave.
- Ask students, "what part of our bodies tells our body how to behave?" The answer we are looking for is the brain, as the brain controls everything that our bodies do.
- If you are using the Thinkabit Lab Notebook, fill in the second blank on page 12 as shown below:
- Computer Science – This is like the BRAIN in our bodies.
- Discuss with students how computer science engineering is related to the brain in the nervous system by asking: How is the brain like a computer with which a computer scientist would work?
- Explain the following interconnected ideas:
- The brain controls the body just like computers can control different objects or systems.
- The brain makes the body work just like a computer can make a robot work.
- The brain takes in information using different senses like touch, smell, or vision, and controls outcomes like our movement. Similarly, computers take in information from a keyboard or mouse and control various operations or functions.
- To illustrate the relationship between input and output, initiate a discussion by asking one student any yes or no question. Once the student answers the question, explain the following process: The person who asks the question outputs information and the other person inputs the information through his/her brain. The brain processes that information and then that person outputs information back.
- Summarize the computer science and brain analogy by explaining that the primary responsibility of a computer scientist is to take in information (input) in different forms, process it, and then generate (output) something visual or physical.
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Implementation
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Rather than simply providing the analogy of computer science being like the brain in our bodies, ask students to help define what a computer scientist does and then ask them to relate that activity to a particular system of the body. You can also use the internet to search for a computer science engineer and see what their job entails.
Instruction Category