Activity: How does a computer work?

Category: AV-Media, Computers

Where: a room apart, the hall

How long: approx. 1 hour

What: role-play: How a computer works

Preparation:

Material: a computer (CPU, monitor, keyboard, cables), big computer of cardboard, small and big sheets of paper with letters (letters in different colours, identical letters in identical colours), poster showing the components of a computer, paper and pens

 Video download (1 MB)

 Video download (65 MB)

Steps:

The computer components are in the middle of the room. The children describe the components and realize that a computer can only work if there are cables to connect the individual parts. The children connect all parts, the nursery school teacher helps if necessary. The children describe the order of the data-transport, the nursery school teacher helps if necessary. folge des Datentransportes. The children let themselves be turned into a computer by a spell. (Hocus Pocus!) The nursery school teacher and the children go to the big cardboard computer. The children check if all parts and connections are there. The children imitate the data-transport using different stations (input of letters using the cardboard keyboard – letters in different colours – transport of the letters to the CPU and from there to the monitor. One after the other the children enter their names and transport the typed letters until the name appears on the cardboard screen. The nursery school teacher shows a poster with the components of the computer and a child adds the cable connections by drawing them and explaining the way the data take.

The nursery school teacher explains that they will create a computer manual so that the other children in kindergarten can also learn how computers work. The children design and draw the first page which shows the components of a computer and which way the information takes.

Background information: A computer consists of a keyboard, a CPU, a monitor and cable connections.

The data start by being entered with the help of a keyboard, a cable transports them to the CPU, which is where they are processed, and then they are passed on through the cable to the monitor that shows the information.

CPU and monitor are switched on by pressing the start button.