The ability of specifying simple queries on a database is felt necessary by a growing number of non-computer specialists in order to have direct access to their own data. As an example, physicians quite often ask for personal access to the data concerning therapies and treatments of their patients. Another example concerns open data. The research about this subject must also consider open access at least with simple queries in order to reach the data transparency that is among open data most considered aims, in particular for the public administration data. The experience here described is under development in two Italian secondary schools specialized in ancient cultures (Latin and Greek) called Classical Lyceum. Students are first introduced to reading the Entity-Relationship data model and to discovering via the activity of reverse modelling what part of the world is considered in a given database (db). The next steps concern how to specify queries here seen as composition of sets of information. Multiple aspects of db design and db management are easy to grasp also by person who do not have a technical background. Thus an important component of this proposal is showing to students two concrete examples of how complex computer problems, such as the design and the management of a db, are solved by layers of abstraction, one of the principles of Informatics as a science. The experience here described is proposed as a contribution to the discussion on which aspects of computer science shall be present in secondary schools, other than in technical and vocational schools, and possessed by all in the next future.
Reading data schemas and knowing a query interface in non technical secondary schools
DEMO, Giuseppina
2013-01-01
Abstract
The ability of specifying simple queries on a database is felt necessary by a growing number of non-computer specialists in order to have direct access to their own data. As an example, physicians quite often ask for personal access to the data concerning therapies and treatments of their patients. Another example concerns open data. The research about this subject must also consider open access at least with simple queries in order to reach the data transparency that is among open data most considered aims, in particular for the public administration data. The experience here described is under development in two Italian secondary schools specialized in ancient cultures (Latin and Greek) called Classical Lyceum. Students are first introduced to reading the Entity-Relationship data model and to discovering via the activity of reverse modelling what part of the world is considered in a given database (db). The next steps concern how to specify queries here seen as composition of sets of information. Multiple aspects of db design and db management are easy to grasp also by person who do not have a technical background. Thus an important component of this proposal is showing to students two concrete examples of how complex computer problems, such as the design and the management of a db, are solved by layers of abstraction, one of the principles of Informatics as a science. The experience here described is proposed as a contribution to the discussion on which aspects of computer science shall be present in secondary schools, other than in technical and vocational schools, and possessed by all in the next future.
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