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Life Skills: Lesson Plans & Activities12 chapters | 284 lessons
Computers Lesson Plan for Elementary School
Instructor:
Kandi Young
Kandi has degrees in Communications, Human Services, Education and Computer Science. She is a Business, Marketing, and Technology instructor with a Master's degree in Education.
This lesson focuses on the key internal hardware of computers, including the CPU, motherboard, and hard drive. Students will engage in a hands-on learning activity and complete a worksheet to reinforce the concepts taught.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- explain the role of the Central Processing Unit, motherboard, and hard drive
- understand the role each piece of hardware plays in making a computer work
- explain how internal hardware impacts external hardware, such as the mouse and keyboard
Length of Lesson
30 minutes to 1 hour
Standards
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Materials
- Paper
- Markers, crayons, paints, etc.
- Poster board
- Paste
- Magazines (optional)
- Salvaged computer parts (optional)
Reading and Discussion
- Have students volunteer to read a line or two out loud of How Computers Work: Lesson for Kids.
- After reading the Central Processing Unit Section, pause and ask:
- Think about the description we just read. If the CPU were part of the human body, which part do you think it would be? Explain why you think this.
- Once students have guessed and explained their reasoning, explain that the CPU is often referred to as the brain of the computer because it controls everything.
- Continue having students volunteer to read the next section on Motherboards.
- At the end of the Motherboards section, again pause to ask students which body part they think the motherboard could be compared to.
- When students have finished guessing and explaining their answers, inform them that it is often thought of as the skeleton or nervous system since both of these connect everything together.
- Have students read the Hard Drive section of the text and ask the same human comparison question.
- The hard drive can be compared to a person's memory, which some may argue lies in the heart instead of the brain!
- Students will finish the lesson by completing the How Computers Work: Lesson for Kids worksheet.
- Discuss the answers in class and re-teach concepts as needed.
Activity
- Remind students how they thought about which parts of the human body each computer part was like in the lesson.
- Explain that they are going to create a person with computer parts instead of human parts.
- Students may use any available material to create their person. For example, they could draw everything, cut photos out of magazines, use poster board to create parts, use old computer parts, etc.
- The more materials available, the more engaged students will be. School tech support can often provide old CPUs, chips, and hard drives for 3D creations!
- Be sure to encourage students to be creative. For example, while they may use the CPU as the brain, they could also put it in the place of the heart instead.
- Tell students that they will need to explain why they put the computer part where they did and how this part will work with the others in this position.
- Have students share their creations with the class.
Extension
Have students create a glossary using the computer terms introduced in this lesson. Allow students to write their own definitions of the terms and share them with the class. Continue to have students add words as the year progresses. By the end of the year, students will have a comprehensive dictionary of terms that they created!
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Lesson
9 in chapter 1 of the course:
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