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I’ve been collecting resources for teaching Binary numbers and number systems lately. Today seemed like a good time to share what I have collected so far. And of course to ask people if they have others they recommend.
MathmaniaCS Lesson Plan
A lesson plan/activity for teaching Binary numbers from the MathamaniaCS web site. Includes a graphic on counting in Binary on ones fingers.
How to Count to 1,023 on Your Fingers
This site talks about base ten, base six, Binary, Binary Coded Decimal and Hexadecimal and includes a cute applet that demonstrates counting in those bases on your fingers. As always beware the Binary value for four.
Binary Counting Cartoon - http://www.instructables.com/id/Binary-Counting/
This cartoon (available as a downloadable PDF file) demonstrates how to count to over a thousand by using binary numbers and your fingers.
The Binary System
A guide to a quite confusing concept by Christine R. Wright with some help from Samuel A. Rebelsky. Written for college students and fairly comprehensive.
Cisco’s binary teaching game - http://forums.cisco.com/CertCom/game/binary_game_page.htm
This game challenges students to set and reset bits to display a binary representation of specific decimal numbers. It is an interactive way for students to practice what they know about binary numbers.
Exploring Binary blog - http://www.exploringbinary.com/
This blog is completely focused on binary numbering and data representation. It is written by Rick Regan who has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in computer science. Some outstanding sample posts are:
The Binary Marble Adding Machine - http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/index.html
This site shows a wooden binary adder that uses marbles to set and reset “bits.” There is a demo video and a link to plans for making a device yourself. Building one is recommended only for people who have experience with wood working but students will enjoy and learn from the video demo.
Converting from Binary to Decimal – http://www.mathwarehouse.com/non-decimal-bases/convert-binary-to-decimal.php
A very math centric set of examples of converting to and from decimal and binary numbers.
Why learn the Binary (Base2 ) number system? - http://web.fccj.edu/~wdennis/base/binary.htm
Part of a set of Base Number System information pages (http://web.fccj.edu/~wdennis/base/ ) by Bill Davis of Florida State College.
Alfred Thompson’s blog entries tagged with the Binary key word - http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/tags/binary/default.aspx
From time to time new binary number educational resources are written up on this blog. Using the keyword Binary will list the most recent of them.
Please join Microsoft for the 2010 US Imagine Cup Community Showcase
The US Imagine Cup team would like to extend an invitation to you to attend the Software Design and Game Design Finals at Washington DC’s interactive and inspiring Newseum. Now in its eighth year, the Imagine Cup is the single largest annual investment that Microsoft makes to inspire students by combining their imaginations with Microsoft technology to make the world a better place.
Microsoft Imagine Cup Community Showcase
April 26, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Newseum, Washington, DC
Register HERE: www.microsoftusevents.com/IC10communityshowcase/default.aspx and use registration code GOV0426.
Event Details
Key Attendees
Event Agenda
What’s In It for Students?
Cash Prizes:
Register Today:
April 26, 2010 ~ 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Newseum, Washington, DC
Be inspired! Have fun! Network with your peers! See great student projects! This event will leave you in awe; we hope you can make it!
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments at skills@microsoft.com. We look forward to seeing you there!
An interesting new report from Anita Borg Institute, CSTA and the University of Arizona called “Addressing Core Equity Issues in K-12 Computer Science Education: Identifying Barriers and Sharing Strategies shows that K-12 Computer Science education in the United States is in a state of crisis.” The state of crisis is no surprise to anyone who is teaching K-12 computer science or who talks to K-12 computer science teachers regularly. Enrollment is dropping in K-12 CS even if it is showing some improvement in higher education. One has to wonder if the upward trend in higher education will continue if the K-12 trend continues down.
The problems are complex though and are resistant to simple strategies or single efforts. Appropriately the report suggests a number of actions. One of them directly impacts me.
Engage industry representatives with K-12 teachers to provide an accurate and up-to-date picture of the computational thinking skills that a diverse body of students needs to engage successfully in the workforce.
It effects me because I am an industry representative. :-) In my current role I do spend a lot of time engaging with K-12 teachers. Recently I was at an advisory board meeting for the programming and web development program at a career technical high school where the main topic was what skills industry is looking for. I attend meetings like this at four different local career technical schools around Massachusetts and New Hampshire. These programs are vitally interested in talking to industry so that they can prepare students for future education and careers. Typically college prep programs are less interested. Not always of course but in general many college prep programs have their sights on what universities are looking for rather than industry.
To some degree that is ok. Most students, even from vocational/technical programs, are not going to get jobs right out of high school. But a few will. Most college students will also be looking for jobs in industry after graduation though. A lot of university programs are focused on creating graduate students rather than industry professionals and that can be a problem. Not that we don’t need more graduate students in CS, we do, but that is not the default option for most college graduates. Somewhere along the way they need to learn skills that will get them a job. If for no other reason than that they can be a success and donate lots of money to the schools where they learned those skills. :-)
But actually I think the point should be that these computational thinking skills and other computer science concepts are needed across many fields and even in university and graduate programs. We have to understand that if industry and academia get too far apart both sides lose out.
The announcement of the report is at NEW REPORT FROM ANITA BORG INSTITUTE, CSTA AND UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ADDRESSES EQUITY ISSUES IN K-12 COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATIONS and the summary there is worth the read because it will get you interested in reading the whole report.