1. Your assignment and practice brief
Your computing challenge
A community learning centre needs computers for learning, bookings and sharing information. You will learn how computers work, practise with small examples, and explain choices using evidence.
This is your course practice brief. Unit 2 is assessed by an external examination. These activities help you prepare; they are not an official Pearson assignment or a substitute for that exam.
What to do
- Read the learning page for your section. Look at the diagram and try the worked example.
- Open the matching workbook section. Complete the activity and quick check in your own words. Show your working for calculations.
- Ask the Azure tutor for an explanation or one hint if you are stuck. Use your own answer.
- Write a short note about what you understand and what you need to practise.
- Download a backup, then use the revision practice for that topic.
What to hand in
Follow your teacher’s Teams assignment instructions. You can download your workbook backup, or print the requested section to PDF. If an activity needs a diagram, draw it on paper or in your school’s drawing tool and submit that separately as your teacher directs. The text workbook does not upload drawing files.
Your teacher will set lesson dates, deadlines and which sections to submit. Do not put your name or contact details into this app. Your school’s Teams handles your submission.
How to check your work
- Use the correct computing words and explain what they mean.
- Give reasons linked to the situation, not just a list of facts.
- Label diagrams clearly and show calculation steps.
- Check your answer and improve it after feedback.
A1: Computer parts and choosing devices
Your task: Draw arrows from scanner to processor to server to screen. Label one place data is stored. Then choose either a tablet or desktop for a school reception desk and give two reasons.
Check your understanding: Why does a school still need a backup if it uses mirrored disks?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicA2: Operating systems and programs
Your task: Make a three-column table headed OS, utility and application. Add two examples to each. Then explain which interface might help a first-time user at a ticket machine.
Check your understanding: What does a device driver do?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicA3: Collecting and using data
Your task: Design a sign-in form for a club. Add two validation rules, one total and one report. Write a simple three-step backup and restore test.
Check your understanding: How can a number pass validation but still be incorrect?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicB1: Ways to build a computer system
Your task: Draw two simple boxes for CPU and memory. Show one shared path for Von Neumann and separate instruction/data paths for Harvard. Then write one reason a busy ticket website might use a cluster.
Check your understanding: What could an emulator do, and what is one limit?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicB2: How a CPU works quickly
Your task: Draw a table with columns Cycle, Fetch, Decode, Execute. Trace two instructions through it. Add a one-cycle pause when instruction 2 needs a result from instruction 1.
Check your understanding: Why can two CPUs with the same clock speed finish a task at different times?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicB3: Tiny storage inside the CPU
Your task: Use five paper cards marked PC, MAR, MDR, IR and Memory. Act out a fetch. Write down which cards hold an address and which hold instruction data.
Check your understanding: Which register holds the address of the next instruction?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicC1: Binary numbers
Your task: Convert 26 to eight-bit binary and to BCD. Show the place values. Add 0101 + 0011 in binary. Explain which answer is a number and which is a coding of decimal digits.
Check your understanding: Why is binary 45 different from BCD 45?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicC2: Letters as numbers
Your task: Write three names or place words from different languages, using fictional examples. Check whether each character can be stored by the chosen character set. Explain why a school should test a new database with many languages.
Check your understanding: Does every Unicode character always use one byte? Explain.
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicC3: Pictures made from pixels
Your task: Draw a 5×5 pixel picture on squared paper. Colour it with only four colours. Then calculate raw pixel-data bytes for a 200×100 image at 8 bits per pixel.
Check your understanding: Why might a photographer keep an original image and a smaller web copy?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicD1: Stacks, queues, arrays and lists
Your task: Use paper slips P, Q and R. Trace the slips as a stack and as a queue. Write the order in which they leave. Then choose a structure for a school printer and explain why.
Check your understanding: If A, B, C enter a queue and A leaves, who is at the front?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicD2: Grids, arrays and matrices
Your task: Draw a 3×4 seating grid and number its cells in both storage orders. Add two 2×2 matrices of your own. Show one row-by-column multiplication step.
Check your understanding: Why do you need to know the number of columns to find a row-major offset?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicE1: Sending data between computers
Your task: Make three paper packets with addresses, numbers and short messages. Shuffle them, rebuild the message, then describe what to do if one is missing. Decide whether a medical image should use lossy compression.
Check your understanding: What jobs do a sequence number and encryption do?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicE2: Spotting errors
Your task: Count the 1s in 1010110 and add an even-parity bit. Change one bit and check the result. Change a second bit and check again.
Check your understanding: Can parity always notice two changed bits? Why?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicE3: Fixing errors
Your task: Pass a message through three classmates. Deliberately damage one symbol. Compare the number of messages and the waiting time when you ask for it again versus when extra checking information was sent first.
Check your understanding: What is one benefit and one cost of FEC?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicF1: True and false decisions
Your task: Make a truth table for A AND NOT B. Then draw a NOT gate on B and an AND gate using A and the result. Test all four rows.
Check your understanding: What does XOR give when both inputs are 1?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topicF2: Drawing how data moves
Your task: Draw a flow chart that reads a score, rejects values outside 0–100, then gives PASS for 50 or more and RETAKE otherwise. Test −1, 49, 50 and 101 and write each output.
Check your understanding: Why must both branches of a decision be labelled?
Keep your answer, working and a reflection in the matching workbook section.
Read this lesson · Complete this section · Revise this topic