Session 1 · DESIGN: Discover
Your data trail
- 10 minHook: show a photo of the 1890s Hollerith census machine next to a phone. Both store data. What is the same and what is different?
- 15 minData trail diary: list everything you did yesterday that created data. Colour-code: data you chose to share, data collected without you noticing.
- 15 minChoose your context: backyard birds, school travel or reef watch. In your group, write three questions your data could answer.
- 10 minSort the questions: which can be answered by counting? Which need a survey? Which would need data you should not collect?
Session 2 · DESIGN: Explore
Everything is ones and zeros
- 10 minBinary cards: five cards with 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 dots. Flip cards face up or down to show the numbers 5, 13 and 21.
- 15 minSecret message: letters are numbers too (A = 1, B = 2…). Send your partner a three-letter word in binary. Can they decode it?
- 15 minPixel pictures: colour a 10 × 10 grid, then describe it to a partner using only numbers. How many numbers did you need?
- 10 minExit card: explain in one sentence how a computer can store a photo when it only understands on and off.
Getting started
Start with only three binary cards (1, 2, 4) and count from 0 to 7.
Stretch
Work out how many different numbers five binary cards can show, then eight. Why do computers group bits into bytes of eight?
Checkpoint
A data trail diary, three group questions, and a word sent and decoded in binary.
Activities for this week
- Data trail diary: How much data do you leave behind in a single day, and who ends up holding it?
- Binary bracelets: How can a computer store your name using only on and off?
- Pixel pictures and compression: How does a computer store a picture, and how can it make the file smaller?
Useful this week
- Census ↗ How Aotearoa counts its people, and how census data is used to plan schools, roads and hospitals.
- Binary numbers ↗ A New Zealand-made set of no-computer activities for learning how binary works.
- Image representation ↗ Learn how pictures become numbers, with pixel and compression activities.