Computing in Primary Schools: big ideas

These ‘big ideas’ for computing are designed to help educators and learners learn the essential understanding in computing that all students should acquire during the Broad General Education.
It has been inspired by Wynne Harlen’s Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education. Some of the language or concepts may appear very abstract for inexperienced learners or educators but there is support throughout this site to understand each one.

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Computers are machines designed to do specific functions

Computer are made of materials, such as metal and plastic, and require energy/electricity to operate

Computers use only the numbers 0 and 1 to work out every problem, do every action and store all information
The physical parts of computers are called hardware, this includes inputs and outputs
Computers can also store data to be used later
Computers can be connected to share data and other resources (internet)

Computers are controlled by instructions, written in a range of languages, collectively called ‘code’

Computers can only process one instruction at a time, although they can typically do millions per second

Code has three basic rules used to make many more complex ones: sequence, selection (if) and repetition (while)