RAM, ROM and CPUs

The aim of this exercise is to get students to understand a topic and then teach it to someone else using a teaching aid that they have prepared. Half the class will research RAM and ROM and produce a teaching aid for it, and the other half of the class will research central processing units. For this exercise, you will need to print off some resources to hand out. I would suggest printing off notes from three different sources. You can quickly find notes from this website along with those found on sites such as Bitesize, teach-ict and a range of others found using Google.

1) Split the class in half and then put each half into groups of three.

2) Each group is given their topic and told that they each have to read the material, try to work out what it means (asking the teacher for help if they are stuck) and then each student in the group has to produce a teaching aid on A3 paper. They will have to teach the topic to someone else in e.g. 30 minutes. You could discuss and write on the board the key ideas that they should try to communicate: What is each piece of hardware, what does it do, why is it important, how is it used, how is it measured or compared, why do you need a fan (CPU), what programs does ROM hold, what is 'volatile' and 'non-volatile' memory, what is a CPU clock, what is a 'core' in a CPU and so on. Make sure that you hand out material that can cover these points.

3) Before they begin, explain that next week, they will have a test on RAM, ROM and CPUs. The mark that they get individually will be an average of the two marks that both students in the pair score!

4) After 30 minutes, pair up students from the different halves. They then have 10 minutes each to teach the key points to the other person using the teaching aid. They should test the person has taken in some of the facts by questioning and by asking them to explain back what they have just been told.

5) For homework, they should revise for a test on RAM, ROM and CPUs! 

TEST

1) What do RAM, ROM and CPU stand for? (3)

2) What is the difference between volatile memory and non-volatile memory, and state what type of memory RAM is and what type of memory ROM is. (2)

3) State three different ways that you could compare different CPUs? (3)

4) Explain what is meant by a POST? (2)

5) A CPU carries out a FETCH - DECODE - ????? cycle? (1)

6) What is the difference between the software held in RAM and the software held in secondary storage devices (2)

7) State 3 other names that RAM is known by. (3)

8) Explain why most CPUs have a fan sitting on or near them? (1)

9) The clock in a CPU tells you how fast the CPU can work. What is the unit of measurement for the clock? (1)

10) Some CPUs are known as e.g. a quad core CPU. Explain what is meant by this. (2)

TEST OUT OF 20.

Each student's mark is the average of their mark and their learning partner's.