APS - Abstractions, Algorithms, and Problem Solving (Module Overview)

Abstractions, Algorithms, and Problem Solving

Introduction

Problem solving is a common part of everything that you do each and every day. We are a problem solving machine, like a computer. Think about your day and identify something that you do on a regular basis. Put this in terms of a problem to be accomplished. Now, think of how you handled the problem to achieve a solution.

Essential Questions

• How can a creative development process affect the creation of computational artifacts?
• How can computing and the use of computational tools foster creative expression?
• How can computing extend traditional forms of human expression and experience?
• How are algorithms implemented and executed on computers and computation devices?
• Why are some languages better than others when used to implement algorithms?
• What kinds of problems are easy, what kinds are difficult, and what kinds are impossible to solve algorithmically?
• How are algorithms evaluated?

Key Terms

Abstraction - showing the user only the details that are needed; taking complex data away from the needs of the user to allow the user to function without understanding details of how. Example is email, you do not need to know how it works in detail, just that when you click send, the email will get delivered to the appropriate person. Reducing the complexity of a program.

Algorithm - a set of steps or processes to solve a problem.

Function - a combination of variables and operators.

Heuristic - a technique, a way to try to solve, an idea to use to look for the answer to a problem which may or may not be solved by the technique.

Iteration - to do again, a repetition of an existing process.

Method - a set of instructions telling a computer the operations to perform for a problem solution.

NP - in computer science, problems that have an indeterminate answer; a choice of answers requiring more information to choose the best answer.

Operator - a character symbol like a plus sign in math, +, or a word or specially defined symbol usage in a programming language, that tells the computer to do something with variables.

P - in computer science, problems that have a particular answer; a determinate problem.

Procedure - another word for method.

Solvable Problems - problems that can be solved with algorithms to an exact answer, a computer can find the exact answer.

Unsolvable Problems - problems that are indeterminate in their solution for a computer.

Variable - a programming word made up of letters, numbers, and/or allowable symbols which holds data for the program.

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