Lesson 1.1The Computing Revolution

Key Terms

Term / Definition
Abstraction / Procedural abstraction gives a name to a procedure. People can then use the procedure without worrying about the finer grain details.
Adaptive technology / Adaptive technology helps increases or maintains the capabilities of a person with a disability
Analog / Analog information has continuous values instead of jumping from one value to another value without passing through the values in between. Most physical information such as position, wind speed, light intensity, or sound pressure, is analog.
Arguments / The values that a program provides to a function.
Authentication / When two parties exchange information so that they trust that each other is who they say they are
Automation / Automation is using a system (often a computer) to do something with less human attention than the task would otherwise require. Examples:automated manufacturing of clothing, security image analysis, or automated vegetable planting.
Backlog / A prioritized list of features or user stories to add to a program
Binary / Binary information is written using only two values: zero and one. Everything can be approximately represented using a binary representation.
Boolean expression / A Boolean expression is either True or False. Boolean operators include “and,”“or,” and “not.”
Character / Any single typeset unit, including uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, punctuation marks, international characters like letters with accent marks and special characters like tabs and carriage returns
Collaboration / Working together by sharing information, resources, or responsibilities; creating knowledge, services, or goods as a group
Components / Parts of an interface
Concatenate / To tack together two strings of characters, making one longer string
Computational Thinking / Habits that help people solve problems with computers. Computational thinking habits cause a person who is facing a problem to ask how computers could help them be more creative, to communicate, to collaborate, to use data or the Internet, or to use crowdsourcing or simulation, to solve a problem.
Creative expression / Computing helps people create sound, movies, 2D media such as screen images or paper art, 3D media including computer-controlled subtractive art (milling) or additive art (3D printing), user interface design, user experience design.
Data Collection and Analysis / Data can be generated by sensors like thermometers, cameras, microphones, and keyboards and collected in storage. Data analysis uses creative ways to see patterns in data and using mathematics to describe those patterns.
Decomposition / A problem solving strategy of breaking a problem apart into smaller subproblems
Default / A default value is a value that a variable will have if no action is taken by the user
Digital / Digital information has discrete values with gaps between the values. Digital information can be exactly represented using a binary representation. Digital information can be duplicated exactly, without loss in quality. Digital information can be transmitted error-free.
Digital Divide / The contrast between two groups’ access to computing resources and the Internet on the basis of race, wealth, or national boundaries
Economic impact / Economic impacts of computing include changes in the numbers types, and wages of jobs, and changes in the amount, type, and cost of services, goods, and materials produced.
Evaluate / To determine the result of an expression
Event / An action that can trigger an event handler to be executed, such as user input from the mouse or keyboard, or a timer’s alarm
Event handler / A part of a program that runs when an event occurs
Global variable / A variable that can be used anywhere in a program, unlike a local variable, which can only be used in one portion of a program. In App Inventor, procedures, event handlers, and for loops can create a local variable that can only be used inside that procedure, event handler, or for loop.
Increment / Increase by a specific amount; usually means to increase by a small amount; often means to increase by one
Input / Information provided to the computer from a person or from another computer, through input devices such as the keyboard, mouse, or touch screen
Interface / The way a human interacts with a computer through the input and output
Modeling and simulation / A model is a simplified description of some object or phenomenon. A simulation is a computer-executed version, often predicting how an initial state will evolve over time.
Output / Information sent by the computer to a person or to another computer, through output devices such as a display or printer, speaker, or motor
Parameters / Variables that can be used inside a procedure. The variables are initialized with arguments’ values when the procedure is called.
Processor / The component of a computer that follows instructions
Professional Greeting / A standardized procedure that professionals use when they meet or begin work together
Property / A variable that stores information about an object
Social impact / Social impacts of computing include changes in how people communicate with each other and in how groups of people form and function, including circles of friends and structures of government
Sprint task list / A list of small steps to accomplish, breaking down a user story from the backlog
String / A sequence of characters
Team Norms / Team norms are agreements among all team members. Team norms typically spell out that all team members will provide input and provide protocols for communication, work together, and conflict resolution.
Variable / A place in memory to store a value
Voltage / Voltage is the energy difference per electron between two locations. The energy can be converted to kinetic energy when electrons fall from low voltage to high voltage.

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Introduction toComputer Science Lesson 1.1 The Computing Revolution Key Terms – Page 1