By the end of this lesson, students will:

  • Understand why computer science is useful

  • Be familiar with how the basic areas of computer science

  • Feel confident about what’s ahead!

If you’re ready, let’s get started!

Understanding the Subject

Computer Science is the study of how computers work and how we can use them to solve problems. It involves understanding both the hardware (the physical parts) and software (the programs and systems that run on them). Speaking of software – that’s a massive chunk of what you’ll learn about. We use software every day, but we need people like yourself to build the software of tomorrow. To do this, we use code – but more on that later…

It’s not just about learning to code. It’s also about learning how data is stored, how computers talk to each other using networks, and how we can use computers safely and ethically.

In fact, a large part of computer science, doesn’t involve computers at all. That’s computational thinking – the skills needed to compute! Did you know, that the first computers weren’t actually machines at all, but rather people? People who would perform calculations and complete tasks!

But more on thinking skills later… In computer science you also get to look at how computers really work. How does a CPU process information? Why does your phone store some things temporarily and others forever? And how on earth was the internet created? We’ll explore all those questions and many more in our hardware topic.

Computer science is also understanding how to use digital devices for good as well – the moral side of using technology, and how to protect yourself from network threats. These invaluable skills are what keeps us safe. We’ll help you assess for yourself whether you can trust a website with your data, or whether we should leave all our decision making to AI. You’ll have your own opinions about that, I’m sure!

So that about does it for now. But before you move on to the next lesson. Consider the following – 

We should learn computer science because it helps us:

  • Problem solve
  • Create apps, games, websites, and tools for good
  • Understand the tech that runs the world
  • Better prepare for the jobs of the future

You don’t have to become a programmer, but learning computer science will help you to solve problems better in any career.

Welcome to the world of Computer Science – we’re glad you decided to join us!

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