Today, we can not imagine our world without computers. Do you know that early computers did not look like the computers of today.
In fact some of the first computers were people! Human computers! The history of computers is fascinating and a perfect way to engage the students before and during a computing class.
See if they can research and find the answers to
What was the world's first video game?'
Who is world's first computer programmer?'
Who designed the first Apple computer?
At one point, computer was a job. 'I want to be a computer when I grow up!'.
Most of these human computers were women and they played a critical role in World War I and World War II, deciphering secret codes, computing firing tables and more. Some good resources on this are
Some suggestions for topics that can be assigned/studied in a computer history class are: