Lesson Idea | CT Foundations - Introduction to Abstraction
Summary
This activity explores the concept of Abstraction, which is one of the four foundations of Computational Thinking. Simply put, it is the process of taking away characteristics from something in order to reduce it to a set of essential characteristics.
Target group: All students in primary education can do this activity.
Duration: 30-50 minutes
Learning goals: The objective is to learn, in a practical way, the concept of Abstraction from Computer Science. It begins with an activity far removed from the computing field and then relates it to problem-solving, computer programming, or data structures.
Online/offline: Offline
Computational Thinking:
General skills: teamwork, creativity
CT foundations: Abstraction
CT concepts: None
Materials:
Pencils and paper
Cards with images or concepts (e.g. “Time's Up! Kids” game cards or printable cards from the appendix)
Preparation
Divide the class so that in each group there are 4 to 8 students around a table. Each group needs somewhere they can draw (i.e. paper, blackboard, etc.) and pencils. When applicable; print the cards from Appendix 1.
General Introduction to the Four CT Foundation Lessons
Ask the students:
What do you know about how computers and telephones work?
Can they think for themselves? (Why or why not?)
Who controls what a computer does?
Explain to the students that they are going to work on Computational Thinking. Simply put, this involves learning how to get a computer to solve a problem for you. It is not merely programming, but also, for example, learning how to break down a problem into pieces, or recognizing patterns so you can better solve a problem. There are four main foundations of CT:
Decomposition: Dividing a problem into small pieces.
Pattern recognition: Looking for similarities or patterns within those small pieces that can help you solve the problem.
Abstraction: Distinguishing between the main and secondary issues. What is really important to solve the problem?
Algorithms: Coming up with step-by-step instructions to solve the problem.
In this lesson, you will be introduced to pattern recognition.
https://computationalthinking.education/en/activities/en_CTprimED_Photo_cards.pdf
For more information, please visit CTPrimEd website.
Lesson Idea | CT Foundations - Introduction to Abstraction
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