Problem solving using computational thinking

Have you ever heard that computers "think"? Believe it or not, computers don't really think. Instead, they do exactly what we tell them to do. Programming is "telling a computer what to do and how to do it." Before you can think about programming a computer, you need to figure out exactly what you want the computer to do. Thinking about problems in this way is computational thinking. Computational thinking allows us to take complex problems, understand what the problem is, and develop solutions. We can present these solutions in ways that both computers and humans can understand. The course includes an introduction to computational thinking and a broad definition of each concept, a series of real-world examples illustrating how computational thinking can be used to solve complex problems, and a student project that asks you to apply what you've learned about computational thinking to a real-world situation. This project will be completed in stages (and in phases) and will include a final disaster recovery plan that you will share with other students like you. This course is designed for anyone who is just starting to program, thinking about programming, or just wants to understand a new way to think critically about problems. No prior programming knowledge is required. The examples in this course may seem particularly relevant to a high school audience, but they have been designed to be understandable to anyone. You will learn to: - Identify the components of computational thinking, including abstraction, problem definition, decomposition, pattern recognition, algorithms, and solution evaluation - Learn computational thinking concepts in practice through a series of real-world examples - Develop solutions by applying computational thinking concepts to real-world problems