Web Page: Merriam Webster, "Prototype"
Web Page: BusinessDictionary.com, "Stakeholder"
PDF Document: SDSC, "Computational Thinking"
Web Site: CS4FN, "What Is Computational Thinking?"
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Creating
Creating brings together all the other levels of thinking. As the definitive step in the inquiry process, creating allows you to express what you have learned.
Using Inquiry to Create
Different disciplines follow different versions of the inquiry process. Here are six specific versions, meant to accomplish different tasks.
Consider how the inquiry process can be used to create the essentials listed here:
- food
- communica-tion
- agriculture
- money
- clothing
- entertainment
- medicine
- government
- shelter
- recreation
- literature
- science
- family
- tradition
- art
- careers
- community
- tools
- music
- goals
- education
- machines
- mythology
- transportation
Your Turn Think of something that you know how to create—a painting, an equation, a club, a homemade pizza. What process do you use? How is your process similar to or different from the processes charted above?
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Using Engineering Design
The engineering-design process has produced the computer revolution and the information age. Mastering this process can give you a key to the future. Here is one version of this powerful process.
Critical Thinking | Inquiry Process |
See the Problem Engineers see problems as opportunities. When something is inefficient, inconvenient, or unrealized, engineers see ways to innovate solutions. | Identify |
Brainstorm a Solution Engineers brainstorm solutions, sometimes focusing on specific problems and sometimes seeking approaches that completely overthrow conventional wisdom. | Seek |
Prototype After choosing a solution, engineers prototype it. They try it on a small scale, in drawings and wire frames. Then they present their idea to key stakeholders (decision makers who are invested in solving the problem). | Prototype and |
Build Once a prototype is okayed, engineers build the full-scale version of their solution. They test their design, making improvements along the way. | Innovate |
Review The full-size solution goes through another review period with stakeholders, and engineers make more changes. Then they work out ways to replicate the solution and market it to those who need it. | Scale and |
Implement Once the solution is ready, engineers implement it, whether in one place or many. A time line of the last decade would show how many new, life-changing technologies have been implemented. | Implement |
Your Turn Practice engineering-design thinking. Start by identifying some design opportunities in your school, community, or home. Note inefficiencies, inconveniences, and unrealized possibilities. Select a problem that you would like to tackle, and then follow the steps above to design a solution.
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Thinking Computationally
Obviously, computational thinking has given us our modern computer age. When you identify a series of discrete commands to accomplish a task, you are thinking computationally. This kind of thinking takes many forms:
- Instructions: Any set of instructions, from directions for hooking up a new computer to recipes for making bread (or steel), require computational thinking. The instruction writer devises a set of discrete steps, and when they are followed, the steps lead to a specific result.
- Computer programs:When someone programs a computer to carry out a task, he or she gives a set of commands to the computer. Those commands may be expressed in a number of different forms:
- Natural language: A program can be explained in a particular human language, but such language is imprecise. Most computers cannot decipher natural language.
- Pseudo code: This format follows the conventions of computer code but is still meant for human readers rather than computers.
- Flowchart: This visual expression of an algorithm provides greater precision than natural language or pseudo code, noting actions, decision points, and flow.
- Programming languages: These languages are a halfway point between natural human languages and the binary code of computers.
- Binary code: This is the “natural language” of computers, a series of 0’s and 1’s representing on and off states. At some level, programming languages are rendered in binary code, but few people are able to read and compose binary code.
- Mathematical expressions: All math formulas are types of algorithms, giving a specific set of commands, constants, and variables. So when you learn algebra, you are learning an ancient form of computational thinking. In fact, you are functioning as the computer, carrying out the commands inherent in +, -, ÷, and ×.
Your Turn Which type of computational thinking are you most familiar with? Which type are you least familiar with? How can learning to write a clear set of instructions help you learn to write computer code? How can understanding mathematical computation help you write computer code?