MSCE Computer Studies case studies
MSCE Computer Studies · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) is the national school-leaving qualification taken at the end of secondary schooling in Malawi, and Computer Studies is one of its elective subjects, examined by the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB). A pass signals that you can explain how computer systems work, use common application packages, handle data representation, describe networks and the internet, and discuss the security, ethical and social questions that accompany computing. The MSCE Computer Studies case studies are 5 cases and about 4,106 words.
1The laboratory that freezes for seconds at a time
A secondary school computer laboratory has 24 desktop machines used for word processing and, increasingly, for editing photographs for the school magazine. Each machine has 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard disk spinning at 5 400 rpm, a dual-core processor and a 32-bit operating system.
814 words, about 4 min2Two bytes every ten minutes on the tea estate
A weather station on a tea estate records two values every ten minutes and stores them in a 64 KB EEPROM chip: air temperature in whole degrees Celsius, which ranges from -20 degrees Celsius to +45 degrees Celsius and is held as an 8-bit two's complement integer, and relative humidity from 0 to 100 per cent, held as an 8-bit unsigned integer. A laptop downloads the whole chip once every 30 days, after which the chip is erased.
759 words, about 4 min3Cabling two of three buildings
A rural health centre has three buildings: an administration block, a clinic, and a laboratory 80 metres away as the cable would run. There are 38 devices: 6 desktop computers in administration, 4 in the laboratory, 12 tablet computers carried between buildings by nurses, 8 networked printers and 8 IP telephones used for calls to the district hospital.
853 words, about 4 min4Three hundred lookups a day
A library issues books using a text file of 20 000 membership records, one per line, in the order in which members joined. Each line holds an ID such as 004572, a name and a telephone number.
816 words, about 4 min5One password and a USB in a handbag
A charity running a school-feeding programme keeps a database of 3 000 donors on one office computer. The database holds full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers, bank account details for monthly gifts, and notes on which donors have asked not to be contacted again.
864 words, about 4 min