ICT Enrichment

[tomgrindle]

Hi All,

 

Hope you are all well ...?

 

Just wondering if I could pick some brains. At our school we have enrichment sessions. I was thinking of putting myself forward to run an enrichment based on computers , how they work, hardware etc ..... because I feel that there are some students that would quite enjoy it and find it interesting and its something that I would have done when I was a student here.

 

Now if I do decide to do it I am not really too sure how deep into it to go without making it too boring, but informative as well. Like what each part is, ie CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Graphics Card, Motherboard. Show them it on inside a PC, maybe get them to take some apart and put back together etc. The sessions would be an hour and 20 mins every two weeks, and their choice lasts a term. Is it something that I can do for that long without it being really boring?

 

Are there any schools out there that already do it and might be able to share what they do ... or if any of you could offer any advice and stuff on what you would do to make it exciting etc.

 

Many Thanks

 

Tom

[Flatpackhamster]

Can you explain what an enrichment session is? How is it different to a lesson?

[enjay]

By my maths, that is 8 hours which is a long time to spend digging around inside the case of a computer. Have you considered games programming or video editing instead? How about setting up a school blog or podcast?

 

We did something called Computer Club for Girls a few years back - no good for you unless you're an all girls school, but there may well be other groups who do something similar.

[tomgrindle]

@Flatpackhamster An enrichment session is basically just extra curricular activities that the students can do. Many many choices are put on with what they can choose such as; Game Programming, Gardening, Scrap Booking etc etc ....

@enjay - Yeah tbh that's what I thought. It was just an idea that popped into my head but wasnt sure if it was viable or not. There are other teachers that offer Games Programming using Game Maker etc and they do Film Making and Video editing etc. Oh well .... it was worth a thought.

[Guest Guest]

I did something similar years ago. It was a single 1 hour lesson of taking apart and putting back together. Even the most disruptive kids sat there quietly and got stuck in - hands on vs academic...

 

TBH I can't see there being enough content to last 8 hours without going too specific, ie breakdown of hard drives etc.

[pete]

We've done the "assemble this bunch of parts and get it to boot from a linux livecd" before.

 

IIRC it was over two lessons (50 mins each) and we provided a few "about to get recycled" boxes in component parts. Basic intro to what each bit does, basic H&S (computers like to drink your blood warning), diagram on a projector to give them an idea and then a case of grab screwdrivers and go for it. We left the CPUs seated in the boards, but they did their own thermal paste and cranking down the heatsink under supervision.

 

Amusingly, the girls enjoyed it more than the boys.

[tomgrindle]

Hrmm yeah, maybe as an enrichment I was a bit too enthusiastic ... maybe as a one off in timetable suspension or something. Was there a certain reason that you did it ... ?

[enjay]

Have a look at CC4G and equivalents, as that had a variety of things in it, which would better fill 8 hours than a single topic.

[Sirbendy]

It's something myself and the NM have pondered here - too many kids don't know the ins and outs of the PC itself, operation etc...they always look quite "wow" when we explain things, and as you say, if anything the girls are even more wowed than the lads.

 

Lack of time I suspect will be our enemy..sigh.

 

And this is why I take any time needed to teach my little girl about how things work - she's 2 and a bit, but she'll help with DIY, I've had her help when putting PCs together, she helps me with car DIY ("this is where the petrol comes out. Can you say "injector"? This is a fuel injector.")...if you don't teach them how it all works, what hope for the future, eh?

[pete]

Hrmm yeah, maybe as an enrichment I was a bit too enthusiastic ... maybe as a one off in timetable suspension or something. Was there a certain reason that you did it ... ?

 

The kids mentioned in passing they hadn't seen inside a computer after either the PFY or I reminisced about building our own computers and doing silly performance mods back in the day. We had slack in that particular subject group to devote a couple of lessons to it. Seemed like a good learning exercise, so we did it.

 

I think a couple of the kids went on to build their own computers.

[Guest Guest]

Amusingly, the girls enjoyed it more than the boys.

 

Same here. Was really surprised as most are girlie girls.

[tomgrindle]

I did something similar years ago. It was a single 1 hour lesson of taking apart and putting back together. Even the most disruptive kids sat there quietly and got stuck in - hands on vs academic...

 

TBH I can't see there being enough content to last 8 hours without going too specific, ie breakdown of hard drives etc.

 

Yeah I think 8 hours is too long looking at it now. I don't want to go too technical because I don't want to bore them to death.

 

Have a look at CC4G and equivalents, as that had a variety of things in it, which would better fill 8 hours than a single topic.

 

Cheers, that looks interesting. I will take a further look at that.

 

It's something myself and the NM have pondered here - too many kids don't know the ins and outs of the PC itself, operation etc...they always look quite "wow" when we explain things, and as you say, if anything the girls are even more wowed than the lads.

 

Lack of time I suspect will be our enemy..sigh.

 

And this is why I take any time needed to teach my little girl about how things work - she's 2 and a bit, but she'll help with DIY, I've had her help when putting PCs together, she helps me with car DIY ("this is where the petrol comes out. Can you say "injector"? This is a fuel injector.")...if you don't teach them how it all works, what hope for the future, eh?

 

Well that's the thing. If they know how things work maybe they will respect it more? But certainly, I think its important that children learn these practical skills rather than just the academic and how to use a computer.

[tomgrindle]

The kids mentioned in passing they hadn't seen inside a computer after either the PFY or I reminisced about building our own computers and doing silly performance mods back in the day. We had slack in that particular subject group to devote a couple of lessons to it. Seemed like a good learning exercise, so we did it.

 

I think a couple of the kids went on to build their own computers.

 

Please excuse my ignorance ... but what does PFY stand for?

 

I think there are a few students that would benefit from it, who like to know more and would more than likely build there own PCs. There are quite a few students that you interact with that you can tell take an interest in these things.

[HodgeHi]

Why do you need to stop after you can completed the builds? You could then go onto installing an OS, drivers etc. Then once they have done this, move on to creating a mini network between the machines that the pupils have just built, allowing them to configure the systems for access to the network.

 

I thought of doing something similar to this. I even did some dinner time clubs where the pupils disassembled some computers, learnt about the components and then rebuilt them. We started going into the OS install (each machine had it's own OEM license of Windows). I told them that if you could save your folks from taking a machine to PCWorld and paying someone to sort out problems then it's more money towards your crimbo pressies. We are a primary school.

 

And again here the girls were more interested.

[rad]

Pimply-Faced Youth - is a google answer

 

I would look at what the new GCSE computing course is going to cover. We have a poster that an ICT teacher has done that explains the computing course as a "mechanics" course and the ICT course as the "driver of the car". you could cover an overview of the computing course and make it fun.