I’ve used Intel’s Journey Inside the Computer with various grade levels from 6 – 9. You can use the lessons to teach about how computers work. Depending on the grade, extend the concepts as appropriate.
My Favorite Activities (adapted from Intel curriculum) for Section 1: Introduction to Computers.
- Have students create a blog post to discuss the types of things they do with computers and how important the computer is for the completion of these tasks. Also have them consider what other devices they use on a regular basis that are similar.
- Have students create a drawing to represent their understanding of the inner workings of a computer when they use it.
- Have students use a tool like http://xtimeline.com/index.aspx (or something else of their choice) to create a timeline as they do the lessons.
- Have students complete two documents: An Information Processing Machine.doc and Computers.doc
- Have students write a blog post (feel free to use any media of your choice) explaining the difference between hardware and software. One option is to create a 30 second video.
- Have students create a blog post with the theme of what their life would be like if each student and teacher had a laptop.
- Have students choose one person in either the hardware or software field to create a first person biography using glogster. Extend the idea by having different students represent contributors/inventors from different decades.
- Have students design a device of the future.