Unit 4: Programming - 2024 - Assignment 1 (Learning Aim A) (All Criterias Met)
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Course
Unit 4 - Programming
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
2023/24 - This essay demonstrates DISTINCTION level work for Unit 4: Programming - Assignment 1 - Learning Aim A.
The document covers all required criteria:
P1: Explains how computational thinking is applied to find solutions that can be turned into software applications.
P2: Explains how p...
What is computational thinking?
Computational thinking is also when you take a hard problem and break
it down into smaller, more manageable parts in order to solve it. This
allows each problem to be looked at individually and be solved. For
instance, we do computational thinking in our daily life without even
thinking about it such as making a bowl of cereal. It looks like a simple
task however it involves a lot of steps just to make the bowl of cereal.
For example: initially, we need a bowl, milk, spoon and also a box of
cereal. Next, we need to put the cereal inside the bowl and pour the milk
to your desire and then we can enjoy our bowl of cereal using our spoon
to eat. As we can see, this minimal task of eating breakfast contained
smaller steps. If any of the steps were missed out, for example missing
the milk in your cereal we would have a problem of only plain cereal
without milk and mess up the whole process.
In programming, computational
thinking is the main requirement in
any type of coding language. It
involves taking a hard problem,
understanding it and working
efficiently in order to find solutions.
Within computational thinking there
are four main processes:
,What is Decomposition?
Decomposition is the process of turning difficult ideas into smaller and smaller
chunks. This is also known as factoring. Usually, problems which are seen as
harder to solve are broken down into smaller problems therefore leading to a
person solving the problem. Also, this allows you to mainly focus on a certain
task at one time.Decomposition is used daily even without a person realising.
For instance, creating a meal is a great example of this.
Decomposition is when you break down complex problems down into
smaller and simpler more manageable parts.
Advantages of Decomposition
- Time saving
- Different tasks can be done by different people
- Increased productivity
Disadvantages of Decomposition
- When a team is working together, they must work really effectively
when they are working on their own sections of the program. Otherwise,
the program won’t fit together correctly.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of instructions used to solve a particular problem, such
as a bus schedule or a GPS are examples of algorithms which can be used to
guide you and let you know when buses arrive.
Decomposition in daily life:
You do decomposition in your daily life without you even realising. For
example:
- Getting up early in the morning
- Brushing your teeth
- Eating breakfast
- Doing your homework
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, Decomposition has four different stages:
1) Identifying and describing problems and processes
In this phase, you will list down problems and processes using the specified
language which matches your problem. For example, if you have a financial
issue, you will certainly use financial related terms. This allows one to be
familiar with the required language within the business industry or sector
related to your problem. Let’s say you are arranging a party which includes
food and drinks. Firstly, you must consider how many people are attending the
party, how much food you must prepare for the amount of people, think about
how many chairs and tables you need and sufficient amounts of drinks for
everybody. As a result, if you pick out each of the problems you are able to
have some sort of insight into the processes as well. This stage is crucial
because it allows you to know the whole process and lets you prepare and
break down the problem.
2) Breaking down problems and processs into distinct steps
Within this section, you will decompose more tougher problems and
processes into different steps which, when put together, can be gathered
correctly. There isn’t a certain limit of steps needed to decompose. You will
easily just continue to decompose each bit until you get to a point where you
understand it.
A great example to understand this concept can be calculating a person’s
salary after taxes are taken out:
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