Introduction

In the last lesson we looked at different ways of sorting information and considered how computers also do this. We looked at a branching database which split the content in half with yes/no questions until each item was on its own. This can be used to identify unknown data or items.

This week we are going to explore a different kind of database.

 

What is a database?

Discuss what a database is and examples where people might want to collect together information on a topic. School will hold a database of some information about all the pupils in the school, what sort of information do you think might be in it? Will your favourite colours be in it? Why?

Like some of the examples mentioned last week, explain that sometimes databases can be paper based and sometimes they are electronic. You (or your parents) might have an address books at home of all your friends and families information, what might be in it? Names, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, birthdays etc.

Have you ever played Top Trumps? This is a kind of database as the cards have information about a number of categories on them, each card has the same categories. The whole pack is the database.

Is it easy to search paper databases? Why? If you had a set of dinosaur Top Trumps and you wanted to sort them into meat eaters and plant eaters (assuming that was a category) how would you have to do it?

Computers can help us search digital databases much faster and more easily. Today we are going to be exploring some databases that have already been created.

 

Searching a database

Open up Purple Mash and 2Investigate from the Maths and Data Handling section. Open 2Investigate from the second page (not the quizzes).

 

 

When it opens, select Examples > Database with data > Card Mode > Minibeasts.

 

 

This is our database about mini-beasts, think of it a bit like a pack of Top Trumps cards. How many cards are in this database?

 

 

Switch to the table view

 

How is this view different? Which is most useful? Why? 

Establish that this view lets us see all the data on the cards in one simple table. It's faster to be able to scan the table to find data we need.

Ask a few questions that require them to look for information in the table; what is the habitat of a butterfly? How many legs does a pond skater have? Does a newt have wings? What has the most legs, a newt or a pond skater?

 

Sorting

Switch back to the card view. Remind the children of the number sorting activity from the last lesson and how computers are able to compare data and sort it for us.

 

 

Choose Sort

 

 

Choose the category to sort by

 

 

Choose up (smallest to biggest) or down (biggest to smallest)

 

 

Watch as the cards are sorted for you. 

 

 

Grouping

Next let’s ask the computer to group the cards. But what is the difference between sorting and grouping things?

Can you give me an example using the children in our class?

Sorting and grouping are closely related, but sorting focuses on dividing and ordering items with rules, while grouping is the broader act of putting things together based on shared features.

For example, we could sort the class into height order, from smallest to tallest, or group them by the colour of their hair.

 

Let's get the computer to group our minibeast data cards.

Choose Group

 

 

Choose the category to group by.

 

 

Watch as the cards are put into groups for you. The cards here are grouped by habitat. 

 

 

So we can use the table views and we can sort or order the data when in the card view.

 

Main task

Ask them to open 2Investigate and open the database called 'Children' (This is called ‘Our Class No Sound’ if you are still using the older version of 2Investigate in the 2Simple Collection). If you are already in 2Investigate you can get to this by starting a New file > Examples > Databases with data > Card mode > Children.

 

 

 

Introduce the activity question sheet.

 

 

Ask them to find the answers by searching using the card and table views, and by sorting and ordering the cards. Be aware that there are two slightly different versions of the questions sheet depending on which version of 2Investigate you are using (see resources section above).

 

Plenary

Evaluate the students' learning with the following questions: What is a database? How can a digital database be useful? How were you able to sort the data today? 

Pick out a selection of questions from the worksheet and ask the students for their answers, and how they found the answer.

 

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