Unit 10 - Computational thinking

Understand the nature of and need for abstraction

Describe the differences between an abstraction and reality

Devise an abstract model for a variety of situations

Identify the inputs and outputs for a given situation

Determine the preconditions for devising a solution to a problem

Understand the need for reusable program components

Understand the nature, benefits and drawbacks of caching

Identify the components of a problem

Identify the components of a solution to a problem

Determine the order of the steps needed to solve a problem

Identify sub-procedures necessary to solve a problem

Identify the points where a decision has to be taken

Determine the logical conditions that affect the outcome of a decision

Determine how decisions affect flow through a program

Determine which parts of a program can be tackled at the same time

Determine the benefits and trade offs of concurrent processing

Understand that recognising a problem is the first step in solving it

Categorise different types of problem and solutions

Explore different strategies for problem-solving

Understand the concept and application of the “divide and conquer” approach

Learn about and apply the following to solve problems

• • Visualisation

  • Backtracking

  • Data mining

  • Heuristics

  • Performance modelling

  • Pipelining