Activity 5 - Binary Bracelets
Resources

3 contrasting colours of beads (e.g. black for binary 1, white for binary 0 and yellow for a stop bit to indicate the end of a character)
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Elastic thread for making the bracelets
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Nail varnish to seal the ends
Learning Objectives (from Computing At School Curriculum):
KS2 - Introduction to binary representation [representing names, objects or ideas as sequences of 0s and 1s].
KS3 - Introduction to binary manipulation.
Representations of: o Unsigned integers o Text. [Key point: each character is represented by a bit pattern. Meaning is by convention only. Examples:
Morse code, ASCII.]
Activity
Students will have already met the binary grid in activity 3 so should be able to represent a denary number as above which shows the numbers 76 and 105.
They will understand how binary can represent a denary number but in this activity, they will understand that binary code can also be used to represent characters using ASCII. Using the chart on the next page, students will make bracelets with a secret message. After each character, they should use a single bead as a stop bit. The message could be for a friend or simply their name. It might be a gift for somebody else.
Lead School:
The Stourport High School & VIth Form Centre
Master Teacher:
Christine Swan
(christine.swan@computingatschool.org.uk)

Lead School:
The Stourport High School & VIth Form Centre
Master Teacher:
Christine Swan
(christine.swan@computingatschool.org.uk)