How to teach the parts of a computer

Why this matters

Children use tablets, game consoles and laptops every day, and many of them think the screen is the computer. A student who believes the monitor does the thinking can still fill in a labeling worksheet by copying from the word bank. The mix-up stays hidden, and the teacher has to wait for quiz day to find out who knows what each part does.

The parts of a computer and their four jobs

A computer takes in information, works on it, keeps it and shows the results (Britannica Kids). Each part of a computer does one or more of four jobs:

• Input parts send information into the computer: the keyboard, the mouse and the microphone.
• Output parts send results out to people: the monitor, the speakers and the printer.
• Processing happens in the CPU, the computer's "brain", which handles everything that goes in and comes out.
• Storage keeps programs and files. Memory (RAM) holds what the CPU is using right now, and a storage drive keeps files for good.

A laptop or a tablet has the same parts built into one case. A tablet's touchscreen takes the place of the mouse and keyboard and is also its screen (BBC Bitesize), so a touchscreen does input and output at once.

In the Flint activity, each student names a device they use at home, then sorts the parts of a desktop computer into Input, Output, Processing and Storage bins in a workspace inside the chat. A worksheet can only mark a wrong sort with an X, and Sparky answers it with a question about the student's own device.

Sparky gets Nia to work out that the monitor only shows her comic

Nia works out from her own comic that the monitor shows her work and belongs in Output, then traces how the mouse sends her drawing in. Every student gets the same activity and sorting workspace, and Sparky's replies depend on each student's own answers.

Sparky sends Nia back to something she already saidA right answer gets a harder question

N

Nia

Interest: Drawing comicsStarting point: Thinks the monitor is the computer

Sparky

Hi! Today you're a computer detective. What device do you use at home, and what's one thing you do on it?

Nia

the monitor goes in processing because the monitor is the computer. it shows my comics

Sparky

One clue about the monitor though: what happens to your comic when you turn the screen off? Does the comic disappear, or is it still saved somewhere?

Nia

its still there when the screen comes back on. so the monitor just shows my comic. monitor goes in output

Understanding check

Exactly right! Here's a harder question: when you're drawing your comic with the mouse, is information going into the computer or coming out to you?

Nia

into the computer. the mouse tells it where my hand moves

Put the monitor in Processing, then fixed it from her own comic

Nia is an example student, Sparky's replies are shortened, and the picture shows the workspace after she sorted every part.

What Flint did for Nia

• Sparky's greeting came with a sorting workspace, so Nia could read what each part does and drop it in a bin.
• When Nia put the monitor in Processing, Sparky asked what happens to her comic when the screen turns off.
• After Nia moved the monitor to Output, Sparky asked a harder question: which way the mouse sends information.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

The activity page shows who still thinks the screen is the computer

During class, Needs attention flags the student who is stuck and the message where it happened. Once three or more students submit, activity analytics sums up what the class got right, the mistakes several students made, and a follow-up activity to practice next.

Set up the activity for free

The parts of a computer activity is in Flint's public library, with the sorting workspace, Sparky's guidelines, the greeting and four greeting suggestions already written. Open it, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. The sorting workspace opens inside the chat, so the class needs no cards, printouts or spare computer parts.

For more computer science activities, see Flint for computer science.