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Organize students into groups to complete the following group activities:
- What is hardware, what is software?
A common problem for students is to understand what is happening when they save a document they have created with the computer. Knowing that the floppy disk is just a container for their work and that it is not a hard disk (hard drive) is important. The hard disk is an internally mounted disk in their computer. If one student wants to carry a file away from the computer, she must understand she needs to insert a floppy disk and instruct the computer to save to the floppy disk. If another intends to leave the file on the computer he is using, he instructs the computer to save the file to the hard disk.
An excellent exercise to help dispel these misconceptions is to take a floppy disk apart. This will also increase students' ability to distinguish between hardware and software. Have teachers or other school staff save bad disks for you. If you have enough disks, give one to each student. Use groups if needed. Take a demonstration approach only if you can't locate enough disks for students to investigate themselves.
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Examine the case first. The metal slide is present to protect the floppy disk when the disk is not being used. Move it to the side so you can see the floppy disk exposed in the read/write window. There is a small circular metal piece in the center of the disk visible from only one side of the case. The holes in this metal piece are used to center the disk to the read/write head and engage the chuck that spins the disk. Other small circular holes visible on only one side of the case increase the ability of the drive to position the disk correctly. |
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In one corner there is a plastic piece that slides up or down to open or close a hole that extends completely through the case. If the plastic is positioned to leave the hole open, the disk is protected. In this situation, the computer can read from the disk but not write to it. |
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You may or may not find a second hole through the plastic case. If there is one, the drive recognizes that the disk inserted is high-density and can contain more information than a double-density disk. No such hole is present if the disk is only double-density. |
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Before you can open the disk, you need to remove the metal slide. You will probably need to bend it to get it off. A small spring will fall out. This spring keeps the metal slide closed when the disk is not in use. As the floppy disk goes into the drive, the drive moves the metal slide to expose the floppy disk to the read/write head. |
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Once you have the metal slide removed, the hard plastic case can be pried open with a screwdriver. The small plastic piece—the file protect tab—used to write-protect (lock) the disk will fall from the case. Lift out the thin plastic floppy disk. This disk is made of Mylar, a very light plastic. The white material inside the disk case is used to remove dust and static from the disk's surface. |
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Regardless of how you have done the previous steps, give students time to handle the parts of the disks. See if they can detect the part of the floppy disk that was damaged to the point it became unusable by the computer. Have them look for scratches, tears, and so on. Remind them that the platters in the internal hard drive are not thin and floppy like the one they can see but do store information in the same way. |
- Prominent People in the History of Computers
Students have learned about people who are part of the history and development of the computer industry. A fun way to approach this activity is to assign one name to each student. Have each student create a page that includes a graphic with a short discussion of the person and that person's contribution to the computer field. These reports can be printed to create a class book or a Web site linking each student's page.
People to research include Blaise Pascal, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Herman Hollerith, John Bardeen, Joseph Jacquard, William Shockley, Walter Brittain, Ted Hoff, Robert Noyce, Jack Kilby, Georg Scheutz, Grace Hopper, Gottfried Leibniz, George Stibitz, Konrad Zuse, Howard Aiken, Alan Kay, John von Neumann, Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, Alan Turing, John Atanasoff, Donald Knuth, Ed Roberts, Gordon Moore, and Bill Gates.
- Collage of Processor-Dependent Devices
Many items students use in their lives contain processor chips. Have students work in groups to create a collage of these items using pictures from magazines, newspapers, and catalogs.
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