One day Lisa came home to find her little brother Eddie playing with his Legos on the living room floor. Eddie had a pretty big collection of Lego parts, and he was almost finished building something. Lisa had a pretty good idea what it was. She decided to play dumb.
“Hey, what’s that, Eddie?”
“Jeez, can’t you tell?” asked her brother. “It’s a computer!”
“Oh, yeah, now I can see,” big sister said. “You’ve got the case, the keyboard, the mouse, and…” Lisa was never good with Legos. She really was amazed at how Eddie could build Lego kits almost without looking at the directions. He was really good at it.
“I haven’t made the monitor yet,” Eddie admitted. He turned the computer case around, looking at it, as if he were looking through it. “I wish I could build a real computer, just like this, out of Legos.”
“You could, if you wanted to,” said Lisa.
“Whaddya mean?”
“Well, I mean, computers are put together from parts, which are put together from smaller parts, which are, you know, put together from the smallest parts. It’s sorta like Legos. Parts are parts.” Lisa had taken a computer class last year and learned how computers were built.
Eddie thought about it and stared at his Lego computer. “Wow,” he said, “I can almost see what you mean!” He stared some more and then he closed his eyes and began to visualize what the inside of a computer would be.
Students in this class can do the same thing, so think about these things:
- What is the smallest part in a computer?
- Can we take a computer apart–in this class–into its smallest elements?
- What parts can we take apart and safely put back together?
To figure this out, first look at the computer in front of you and try to visualize what’s inside the case. Now, on the worktables in the room are a bunch of different looking computers. They may be different on the outside, but they’re mostly the same on the inside. Next to each computer are a couple of screwdrivers. Over the next few days, let’s discover what’s inside. You’re on your own. Good luck.
