Student Edition Lab Assignment:
Understanding the Motherboard
CASE:
You work as an associate professor for a local community college. Your class is learning about how computers work. Next week, you will open a computer case and show the class the motherboard or system board. You need to write a lesson plan for teaching your students the components on the motherboard. First you need to gather your notes to prepare for the lecture.
What to do:
1. Create a new word processing document and save it as Motherboard Plan.doc.
2. In the first paragraph of your lesson plan, define the motherboard and explain what it does to make your computer work.
3. You first plan to describe the motherboard. List five components that you might find on a motherboard and give a brief description of each.
4. Next, you want to teach the class about integrated circuit boards. Define an integrated circuit, and then write a few sentences that briefly explain the function of resistors, capacitors, and transistors on an integrated circuit.
5. You want to impress upon your students how the CPU is the brains of the computer. Write a short paragraph describing the functions of the CPU. Include information about how the CPU interacts with input, output, and storage devices.
6. Open the appropriate System dialog boxes and document how much RAM is installed, how much virtual memory is used, and how much memory is used in the paging file on your computer.
7. Your students need to understand RAM and ROM. Explain the basic difference between RAM and ROM.
8. You want to make sure that your students understand what happens when you boot the computer. Identify four of the components that the BIOS tests on POST.
9. When you open the case in class, you plan to point out the slots. List the different types of expansion slots and explain the types of devices that might be connected through each type of slot.
10. Save your changes, and then submit the final document to your instructor.