Part of Lesson Plan: Learn Hardware Vocabulary

Activity Overview / Details

This part of the lesson is for you to help students understand how the hardware components work together in the computer system.  This activity can be used as an alternative if you have a large class and/or cannot show students the inside of an actual computer and its components. (classes of 30-35 students are too big to have them stand around a table while you pull out computer parts)

Using either your white board or a document camera, you are going to draw a basic diagram of the computer, its parts inside, and input and output devices to the computer.  Hand out blank sheets of paper to students and ask them to get out a pen or pencil.  I start at the top of the page and have students write the definition of hardware. (everything they can see and touch).  I then draw a big rectangle (not the whole page) and label that as a computer.  I then draw shapes for the various parts inside (use the vocabulary list) and go over the definition of each one.  Once I do all the major parts inside the computer, I add the input and output devices.  As I draw each one on the board, students are drawing and labelling on their paper.  **I'm not very artistic and I tell students that, so they don't feel bad if they are not either, I joke about not being an artist, try to relieve some of their fears about having to draw**

Depending on the class, I may come around to each desk and briefly check their work, to make sure they followed along with the demo and particapted in the drawing.  Sometimes I don't do this if I don't have time or I feel the students were all following along.  Ask some follow questions to students and let them respond. 

Examples:

- what are the brains of the computer?

- what device do we use to "talk" to our computers? (give input)

- what device is erased when we shut the computer off?

- name one output device

- what device is needed to connect to the internet?