Year Six created a simple off-line database to investigate how these work and the problems that are faced without the use of a computer.

In the next lesson, the children examined two different databases, considering how the information was held in records with several fields. After careful consideration, they realised that there could be pros and cons of using an online version. Using a countries of the world database, these were some of their findings...

, repeat, repeat...we keep returning to the key ideas and vocabulary, to ensure that we have a good understanding of what we've learnt so far. The correct terms help to make our conversations more meaningful. 

We compared our paper data-base with an online version. We managed to carry out searches more efficiently by cutting the corners from fields that were not relevant. The video below shows how this worked. It worked very well, but was confusing when there were full or zero returns. Now imagine if we had over a thousand records, instead of eight!