Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v4 - SHS 2

Lesson Video

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Performance objectives

• Define key terms for relational databases.
• Identify the components of a relational database model.
• Create a simple relational database model.
• Explain the importance of relational databases.
• Collaborate to design a database model.

Lesson summary

Welcome, learners! Today, we are diving into one of the most important topics in modern computing: how to properly organise information. Think about the massive amount of data our schools, hospitals, and businesses handle every day. How does the National Identification Authority (NIA) keep track of every Ghanaian's Ghana Card details? How does MTN or Vodafone keep a record of all your Mobile Money transactions without mixing them up? The answer lies in well-designed databases. In this lesson, we will learn how to be the architects of these data systems. We will not be building the full database itself, but we will create the blueprint or model for one.

Lesson notes

Before we can build a model, we need to understand the building blocks. A relational database organises data into tables, which are made up of rows and columns, much like a spreadsheet. The "relational" part comes from the ability to link these tables together. A. Entities

An entity is any real-world object, person, place, or event about which we want to store data. Think of entities as the main "nouns" in your system. Example: In a School system, the main entities would be: `Student` `Teacher` `Subject` `Class` B. Attributes

An attribute is a property or characteristic of an entity. It describes the entity. Think of attributes as the "adjectives" or details about the noun. Each attribute will become a column in our database table. Example: For the `Student` entity, the attributes could be: `StudentID` `FirstName` `LastName` `DateOfBirth` `Gender` `Hometown`

We can represent this as a table blueprint:

Evaluation guide

• Create a relational database model of a database.
• Project -Based Learning Approach:
• Engage in whole -class discussions to explore databases
• Conduct practical sessions in individual and mixed -ability/gender -sensitive group work.