In the realm of si piuh
Giovanni M. Bianco, Simonetta Tinazzi · 2004
Teaching computer science to children is a big priority among the most of the EU Countries. Nevertheless, off-the-shelf Computer Science books are not particularly tailored to children, who rather need their own language, which is based on fantasy, self-identification, analogy, play, and diverse other features which characterize their bubbling world. These are the main motivations for the introduction of a novel and more children-oriented approach to Computer Science.The manual in use at the University of Verona illustrates the hardware components of a PC. It is composed of eight Chapters. Under the child's point of view, the PC is a Realm where diverse Subjects coexist together. The Realm is lead by His Majesty whose name is Si Piuh. The Mother and the servants are necessary for Si Piuh to complete the job. In this work we'll examine some features of the first chapter where the principal hardware components are presented.The hardware components can be imagined as people who live in a Realm. All the people of the Realm are Goblins, each one devoted to a particular role.With a bit of fantasy, in a Realm there are exactly the same relationships one can find in a PC: gates to the external world, artists who produce paintings and sounds, Masters who guide the whole process, libraries to store material, buses to transport material, ambassadors who know communication protocols, servants and as many other Subjects as one can imagine.The PC (i.e. the Realm) is lead by the CPU, i.e. His Majesty. The name of the king is Si Piuh, which stands for the Italian pronounce of CPU (fig. 1). Synchronizing all the activities inside the PC is a very hard work. By analogy, leading the Realm is not as easy as one can think.