AJ likened the motherboard system to both the human nervous system and city structure. A memorable moment was when AJ explained one difference between the nervous system and a computer, in that a computer won't know when something's wrong with it, it will just keep working and trying to make it work. He said there were certain viruses once that would disable the fan on a computer, so the computer would keep working, working, working without a fan . . . and eventually it would start on fire! Josh in the back joked about how crazy it would be if we just exploded when we got sick . . . he also kept insisting his name was "Thorax the Impaler" or "Doom".
Soon followed a fun discussion - why would someone create a virus? We talked about people using it for advertising and stealing personal files, what a trojan horse is . . . Viruses, viruses, viruses! It was great :)
After introducing a comparative computer parts exercise and then explaining that she would send further information this evening in powerpoint form.
After a very short break, the students found themselves in B109 for an hour of taking apart computers! Maddie covered:
North Bridge:
- CPU
- RAM
- the video card (kind of a part of the North Bridge)
South Bridge:
- The optical drive
- The hard drive
- SATA cords
- IDE cords
- The floppy drive
- the power source
- the heat sink
Great job Maddie! That's a lot to cover! Everyone had fun trying to figure out how the pieces came out of their plastic/metal racks and how to put them back in. Yeah! By tomorrow everyone will be a pro and pass with flying colors on their permit test
After returning to their own room, Cristina did an optional review of powerpoint during break (clever use of time Cristina!) Then AJ introduced the permit test and everyone took it for the last half hour of class, when they were finished writing their blogs. Yeah hardware day!
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