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The Four Powers of Computational Thinking

Run the Four Powers of Computational Thinking MicroSim Fullscreen
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About This MicroSim

Computational thinking is made of four powers: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithm design. This MicroSim puts each power on its own colored card. Click a card and the panel beside it shows three things:

  • what the power means, in one sentence
  • an example from school life
  • an example from Scratch

The card colors are Scratch block colors, and the same colors are used for these four ideas in the other MicroSims in this chapter.

How to Use

  1. Move the mouse over a card. The card lifts a little, which tells you it can be clicked.
  2. Click the card. It gets a white border and the panel fills in.
  3. Read the definition and both examples. Try to say the idea in your own words.
  4. Click the other three cards. The counter at the bottom of the panel keeps track of how many powers you have explored.
  5. Press Start Over to clear the panel and the counter.

On a narrow screen the four cards stack on top of each other and the panel moves below them.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/scratch/sims/four-powers-explorer/main.html"
        height="502px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

Grades 3-5 (elementary), beginning computational thinking with Scratch

Duration

10-15 minutes

Learning Objective

Given the name of one of the four powers of computational thinking, the student can explain in their own words what that power means and give one everyday example of it. (Bloom's Taxonomy: Understand)

Prerequisites

None. This is the first MicroSim in the book. Students only need to be able to click with a mouse or tap on a tablet.

Activities

  1. Exploration (5 min): Students click all four cards and read each panel. They stop when the panel says "You have explored all four powers!"
  2. Guided Practice (5 min): The teacher names one power. A student explains it without looking, then clicks the card to check. Repeat for all four.
  3. Make It Yours (5 min): In pairs, students invent one new everyday example for each power (for example, decomposition: "packing for a trip is really packing clothes, packing a toothbrush, and packing a book").

Assessment

  • Can the student match each of the four names to its meaning?
  • Can the student give an example that is not one of the examples in the panel?
  • Can the student say which power comes first in this chapter, and why the others lean on it?

References

  1. Computational thinking - Wikipedia - Overview of computational thinking and its parts, including decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithms.
  2. Computational Thinking - 2006 - Jeannette M. Wing, Communications of the ACM 49(3) - The short essay that made the term widely known in education.
  3. Scratch - MIT Media Lab / Scratch Foundation - The block-based programming language used throughout this book.
  4. p5.js Reference - p5.js - Documentation for the JavaScript library used to draw this MicroSim.