Building Computer - Transcript Course Name?

[Cabertmom]

I have a question for everybody if I may. My son is finishing his junior year, and he would like to build his own computer this summer (with his own money thank goodness). I think that sounds like a great project, and I would like to include it on his transcript, but I don't know what sort of name to give it as a course. Computer Building or Building a Computer just doesn't sound "professional."

 

Any ideas of what a good course name could be for this?

[Julie of KY]

Applied Electronics

Computer Hardware systems

... probably some others will have better names. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[regentrude]

I used this as the hardware component for our Computer Skills credit.

 

Building a computer does not take that long, so it's not really worth a separate credit.

 

 

[Cabertmom]

Regentrude, this is not something I know much about. My son made a rough estimate of 60 hours. Does that seem over the top to you? He'll be researching components, deciding on cost versus value, etc. I was thinking of adding some sort of networking credit as well perhaps and planning for a half credit. Does that seem reasonable or over the top to you?

 

Julie, those are both great title ideas. Thank you!

[elegantlion]

My son built a computer and even with researching parts, I would have a hard time awarding 1/2 credit just for that (and I was pretty lenient on what I called a credit). I did allow him to count hours toward a programming credit, he put in well over 180 hours on that one. 

 

He spent probably what added to 15-20 hours researching parts and one day to actually assemble the computer. 

 

I would add other components to the course and make the computer a portion of that credit. 

[regentrude]

Regentrude, this is not something I know much about. My son made a rough estimate of 60 hours. Does that seem over the top to you? He'll be researching components, deciding on cost versus value, etc. I was thinking of adding some sort of networking credit as well perhaps and planning for a half credit. Does that seem reasonable or over the top to you?

 

Completely over the top! 5 hours for researching components+ ordering parts, 5 hours for assembly if he is inexperienced. (I double checked with DH who has done the computer building projects with both our kids and who is teaching students to build computers.)

 

What does he plan to do for 60 hours? Does he first have to learn how a computer works at all? That, of course, can take however much time you are willing to give.

Edited May 4, 2016 by regentrude

[Arcadia]

Something like this high school course "Computer Maintenance"

 

http://www.pontiac.k12.il.us/?page_id=4737

 

Or this Austin Community College course "Personal Computer Hardware"

http://www5.austincc.edu/faculty/syllabus.php?id=254728

 

Would work to make it a high school credit.

[raptor_dad]

Completely over the top! 5 hours for researching components+ ordering parts, 5 hours for assembly if he is inexperienced. (I double checked with DH who has done the computer building projects with both our kids and who is teaching students to build computers.)

 

What does he plan to do for 60 hours? Does he first have to learn how a computer works at all? That, of course, can take however much time you are willing to give.

 

Researching parts and building computers is sort of like researching homeschool curriculum... it can be fun and eat up as much time as you allow it. He probably can spend 60hrs reading blogs and news groups debating the merits of *very* slightly different cpu versions and case designs etc, but that isn't productive work. I think 10hrs is a good estimate maybe up to 20 if he is also installing and learning linux... 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What about adding things like software use (Excel, Powerpoint, video editing) and perhaps something like building a wireless antenna from scratch and calling it Digital Technology.

[DebbS]

Completely over the top! 5 hours for researching components+ ordering parts, 5 hours for assembly if he is inexperienced. (I double checked with DH who has done the computer building projects with both our kids and who is teaching students to build computers.)

 

What does he plan to do for 60 hours? Does he first have to learn how a computer works at all? That, of course, can take however much time you are willing to give.

 

I have experience building computers and I agree. It doesn't take very long to build one, even if you don't know what you're doing.  And especially if you have new working parts. My son took old computer parts and built his own over just a few work sessions.  Next he worked with the CPU clock settings and other such things and then he made it dual-bootable under Windows and Linux. He still didn't have anywhere close to a credit. 

 

We just considered it great entertainment.  I guess I could have included under his programming course but I didn't think of it at the time.

Edited May 4, 2016 by DebbS

[Cabertmom]

Thanks, everybody.

 

He will be installing Linux as part of the process. It's good to know (in a way) it isn't as involved as previously thought to build a computer. I was thinking of adding some networking component to add to the course after hearing from all of you that it takes less time than previously expected. Honestly, I wanted him to have another course for his junior year as it looks a bit sparse compared with his freshman and sophomore years, and he wanted to build a computer, so it occurred to me that this could be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. I'm sure we can add enough to make it a legitimate half credit.

[SparklyUnicorn]

If you want to flesh that out a bit to give him credit you could look into A+ certification.  That's basically all about the hardware aspect of computers.

 

 

[daijobu]

If you want to fill in more material, you can check out the options for electronics and raspberrry pi in my signature.