2.1 Computational Thinking

Question 1

Abstraction

Answer 1

“The process of separating ideas from specific instances of those ideas at work. Computational structures are defined by their meanings, while hiding away the details of how they work. Abstraction tries to factor out details from a common pattern so that programmers can work close to the level of human thoughts, leaving out details which matter in practice, but are immaterial to the problem being solved.”

Question 2

Abstract Model

Answer 2

“Any model of a system which has been taken from, or based on (abstracted) a real life situation or problem.”

Question 3

System Inputs

Answer 3

“Anything which will be required to go into a system in any form in order for it to operate as intended. These inputs are then processed by the system following the rules or algorithms of the system.”

Question 4

System Outputs

Answer 4

“Anything which exits a system in any form in order for it to operate as intended. These outputs are often the result of complex processing of inputs along with other data.”

Question 5

Solution Preconditions

Answer 5

“Any condition which pre-exists the suggested solution. For example for a road traffic speed camera program their would be pre-conditions which could be as simple as requiring a road in place and a vehicle traveling along it.”

Question 6

Concurrent Processing

Answer 6

“Any situation in the design or programming of a system when you would want more than one thing happening at the same time.”