Computational Thinking

Decomposition

This is when you break down complex problem or system into smaller parts that are more manageable and easier to understand.

The importance of decomposition

Whithout decomposition, problems or systems can become much more confusing and challenging. Not only this but, but it can help us examine each part in detail.

Pattern recognition

Finding the similarities or patterns among small, decomposed problems that can help us solve more complex problems more efficiently.

The importance of pattern recognition

Finding Patterns makes our tasks simpler, because we can use the sameproblem-solving solution whenever the pattern exists.

The more patterns we can find, the easier and quicker the problem solving will be.

Whithout patterns it can lead to the problem solving taking longer.

Abstraction

This is when we take out or ignore the parts/characteristics of a problem which are not important and are not needed to solve the problem.

The importance of Abstraction

Abstraction allows us to create a general idea of what the problem is and how to solve it. Additionally, if we don’t abstract, we may end up with the wrong solution to the problem we are trying to solve.

With our cat example, if we didn’t abstract we might think that all cats have long tails and short fur. Having abstracted, we know that although cats have tails and fur, not all tails are long and not all fur is short. In this case, abstraction has helped us to form a clearer model of a cat.

Algorithm

Algorithm is a set of step by step instructiosn to solve a problem.

Flow Charts

A representation of an Algorithm, it represents a problem with symobols.

Oval

Start or Stop

Decision

Diamond

Parallelogram

Input or Output

Lines in a flowchart are:

Flow lines, they show the direction/what comes next