Binary Bracelets - Posted by Cathy McLeer



An easy lesson to use with Math, Communications, Science, Patterns….      





I have used this to reinforce multiplication, addition and problem solving. I most often use it in my coding club to teach a bit more about how computers work and communicate. A student in grade five made the observation that, “because they are electric, they can only have open and closed switches, right? So the zeroes and ones are like open and closed?”

For math, they have to solve the problem of: If your bracelet is __cm long,  how many letters can they have if the beads are _mm thick and there are 8 characters in a letter and there must be a spacer between each one?

Consider the age of your students when deciding the size of beads you buy.
Choose the colours that will represent your zero’s and ones as well as a spacer.
Write out the code you want to write.
Use some Elmer’s spray adhesive to hold beads in place.
Place beads in order before stringing them onto the elastic. Start with a spacer and end with a spacer.
In order to anchor your beads so they don’t all fall off, loop your elastic around your start bead by going through the hole twice or if it a dangly one tying a knot around it. I use a couple of reef knots to be sure it doesn’t come  undone. (knot for your shoes, left over right and through, right over left and through)

The ASCII Code
The ASCII code for capital letters is shown below. Unlike base-10 numbers, which can have the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, binary (base-2) numbers can only have the digits 0 and 1 (we usually call the binary digits bits). On this cheat-sheet card, the white squares represent 1 and the black squares represent 0.


Using this card, you can see that the word “CAT” would be spelled 01000011 (C) 01000001 (A) 01010100 (T). ASCII is also able to encode lower-case letters, spaces, and some punctuation, so you can refer students who are interested in those to a complete table


Letter        
I








SPACE






















































































































































































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mallet Percussion Instruments for Beginners!

Image
This year was a huge success with mallet percussion instruments and Orff instruments! I have been limited in resources and experience in this area of Music, and was actually attracted to this book by its use of language to coach children through these fun instruments. I would highly recommend "Mallet Madness" for new Division I and II Music teachers or schools, that do not have a Music teacher, but have some of these instruments: Glockenspiel Xylophone Metallophone Mallet drums or hand drums Log drums Temple Blocks Conga Any other percussion instrument you might have! Within the book, there are great reproducibles for posters and prompts for playing! And the lessons include everything from set-up to warm-ups, games and using poems to create rhythms and songs! I have ordered from this site in the past, they have a ton of great music books:  http://www.stjohnsmusic.com/
Read more

Landscape With A View: Chalk Pastel and Paint

Image
This was a project brought on by a recent artist in residency helping the school with a fundraiser - Martinis and Masterpieces - and art auction organized by the school. During the residency, the grade 1/2 class collaborated to create this piece of art for the auction: In the classroom, students made curricular connections to the grade 2 Social Studies: Different Communities. Their personal art was meant to reflect a particular part of Canada (a prairie view, an ocean view or a city view), while echoing the style of art from the large fundraiser piece. The process included sketching different "views", playing with materials such as chalk pastel, tempera paint and watercolor pencil, brainstorming different views and engaging in a final composition. From an art perspective, students are learning about horizon line as well as foreground, middle ground and background. The pattern effect is created by using chalk pastel for the big sky, and tempera paint for the view. St...
Read more

Year End Talent Show!

Image
Some of the most memorable end-of-the-year events has been our school Talent Show. It's amazing how the exceptional abilities come out in these kids when they are brave enough to step onto the stage. A Talent show is great for getting in your extra-curricular, students demonstrating citizenship, personal development and character and great break from the classroom for all classes at the end of the year. There are steps to a Talent Show! Plan well enough ahead and you'll be golden... Set the date for the Talent Show  - we do ours the same day as Sports Day. Get a committee or fly solo  - the more helping hands the better! Advertise the upcoming Talent Show to the school  - make announcements, show info on your blog, etc. Create an informative letter to go home to parents  - this is to notify parents that preparation for acts must been done on the students' own time (please let me know if you want a copy of this letter) Hold a brief meeting with studen...
Read more