Computer programming in the punched card era

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/computer-programming-in-the-punched-card-era

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What were punched cards and how did they help computers?Punched cards were paper cards with holes that programmers made to tell computers what to do. Each card held a tiny piece of code or data, and many cards together made a full program.
2. Why did programmers use so many cards for one program?Because each card could only hold a small amount of information, a whole program could need thousands or even tens of thousands of cards. The cards were put in a specific order for the computer to read.

Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure or set of rules for solving a problem or performing a computation.
Binary Representation: The system of encoding information using only two states, typically represented as 0 and 1.
Batch Processing: A method where computer jobs are collected and processed in groups or 'batches' without direct user interaction.