NSTL 111
lesson 2
Methods and Processes in NS-TECH
Intermediate phase
Dr S Rapule
Office: Building B10 – G05
(W) 018 299
Email: 12021989@nwu.ac.za
Consultations: Office Hours
Outcomes of lesson
• To List the four key skills/steps of Computational Thinking
• To Define and Explain each of the four skills/steps
• To Apply each of the four skills/steps in a NS-Tech lesson/topic
In this globally and digitally
interconnected world, there is a
growing need to equip students
with 21st-century competencies.
Activity 2: Think about how NS-
TECH outcomes and skills can be
further summarised and linked
into the 4C’s of 21st-century
learning skills
Activity 2.1: Select the NS-TECH process skills from CAPS
page11-12 and place them in the appropriate 21st
Century learning skill
Creativity Critical Collaborati Communicati
thinking on on
Classroom discussion: remember there is no right
or wrong answer just different perspectives.
There is now an
introduction of the 5th
C’s of 21st-century
learning: known as
computational thinking.
Reflect on how
Computational thinking
fits within the NS-TECH
curriculum.
Computational Thinking (CT)
• Definition: a strategy that uses many of the powerful ideas in computer science to solve
problems.
• Meaning: Coding and Computational Thinking?
Computational thinking, quite literally, means breaking a problem down into simple steps
so that a computer could solve it.
Coding is how these steps are communicated with a computer in order for it to carry out a
particular task. Blocky Games is a series of educational games that teach programming. It
is designed for children who have not had prior experience with computer programming.
By the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages.
Areas of Computational Thinking
• There are 4 main areas or cornerstones (key skills) of Computational Thinking:
1. Decomposition - breaking down a problem into smaller, more manageable parts
2. Pattern Recognition - looking for similarities among and within problems
3. Abstraction - focusing only on the important information, ignoring irrelevant detail
4. Algorithms - developing a step-by-step solution to the problem, or the rules to
follow to solve the problem
• hat do we mean by coding and computational thinking? Computational thinking, quite literally, means breaking a problem down into simple steps so that a computer could solve it. Coding is how these steps are communicated with a computer in order for it to carry out a particular task. Read
below for more information, including the relevance of computational thinking and coding to the curriculum. So what do we mean by coding and computational thinking? Computational thinking, quite literally, means breaking a problem down into simple steps so that a computer could solve it.
Practice: CT
Recap
• Computational Thinking
• Key skills acquired or steps in CT
• Application of CT in NS-Tech/teaching
• hat do we mean by coding and computational thinking? Computational thinking, quite literally, means breaking a problem down into simple steps so that a computer could solve
it. Coding is how these steps are communicated with a computer in order for it to carry out a particular task. Read below for more information, including the relevance of
computational thinking and coding to the curriculum. So what do we mean by coding and computational thinking? Computational thinking, quite literally, means breaking a problem
down into simple steps so that a computer could solve it. Coding is how these steps are communicated with a computer in order for it to carry out a particular task. Read below for
more information, including the relevance of computational thinking and coding to the curriculum.
