ALEX Learning Activity

This activity will introduce students to computer hardware and software. Students will explore the similarities and differences between the two. The video shown in this activity will provide the "hook" for the associated during activity.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

I can describe computer hardware and software as well as the similarities and differences between them.

1. The teacher will ask students to turn and talk with a partner about what they know about computer hardware and software. Allow a few students to share their answers.
2. The teacher will say, “We are going to learn even more about computer hardware and software today."
3. The teacher will explain the lesson's objective and discuss unfamiliar words (describe, similarities, differences). Lesson objective: I can describe computer hardware and software as well as the similarities and differences between them.
4. The teacher will say, “We are going to watch a quick video to learn about computer hardware and software."
5. The teacher will play the video "Camp Coding Camp: Hardware and Software."
6. After watching the video students will show their learning by identifying items as either hardware or software using a vote with your feet strategy. (See assessment strategies for an explanation of this strategy.)

The students will use a “Vote With Their Feet” formative assessment strategy to demonstrate their level of understanding about the differences and similarities between computer hardware and software.

1. Divide the room into 2 sections - (1) Computer Hardware and (2) Computer Software
2. Section One: Computer Software
3. Section Two: Computer Hardware
4. The teacher will instruct students to walk to the section that best describes these terms: screen, keyboard, power cords, apps, microphone, speakers, coding, video game, and Google Slides (mix these up in any order that you want).

Approximate Duration: 15-20 minutes.

Materials/Resources:

• Internet-capable devices for both the teacher and students
• Projector and whiteboard to display the activity
• Camp Coding Camp - Hardware and Software video

Background/Preparation

• The teacher will need to be familiar with navigating to Epic! and playing a video found there.
• Teachers will need to create a free account for Epic!
• The teacher will need to understand how to implement the "Vote With Your Feet" assessment strategy (see the assessment section for an explanation of this strategy).
• The students need no background/preparation.

Acceleration - Pair these students with struggling students to allow them the opportunity to explain the activity and function as peer helpers.

Intervention - Pair these students with another student to work in partners rather than independently. These students could also be pulled into a small group to go over the information again with the teacher.

Your school librarian could be a great co-teacher for this lesson.

This lesson should be used in conjunction with the Hardware and Software With Pebble Go - Part 2 (during activity) and Hardware and Software With Pebble Go - Part 3 (after activity).