Big Idea(s)& Essential Questions

Big Ideas: Binary Coding at the Elementary level.

Essential Questions: How do letters become numbers? How does my computer know what letter to put?

Students Will Know

Students Will Be Doing

• Coding:

• Binary Numbers: 

• Programing:

• Computational Thinking:

• Students will create the word STEM using binary code on a candy cane. They will have the option of doing this on a piece of paper or with Legos. 

Assessments (Formative and Summative):

Performance Task(s)

• Informal Formative Assessments: What color are your ones? zeros?

• Formal assessments: Final product of STEM coded on the Candy Cane.

• The ability to work with binary code.

• The ability to turn lettering into binary code. 

Learning Activities: 

Learning targets are written from the students perspective. 

I can…

• Identify

• List/Tell

• Describe

• Solve

• Convert

These should lead up to answering the Essential Question(s).

• I can binary code in an unplugged setting.

Lesson Procedures:

Include any procedure or notes that would  provide further instructions to other educators

You can watch a video or read a book about binary coding or even with the younger kiddos a story about candy canes or the holidays. Each letter has 8 Binary numbers with it, composed of zeros and ones. You can do this lesson in multiple scaffolds depending on your class.

 Level 3 students could code using red and white legos to build the candy cane with the code. 

Level 2 they can create their candy cane with 32 sections on it (they draw the candy cane themselves. Tell students that 0=white and 1= red. Students code out the word STEM on their candy cane.  

Level 1 students  and below could have the candy cane already sectioned off for them and they use the code to color each section the proper color. It is important to point out to students that their candy cane will not look like a regular candy cane with stripes being every other color. Remind them it is okay if you have 3 whites in a row! 

Adaptation: You can use any word for the candy cane. Longer or shorter! 

Binary Code: 

A – 01000001

B – 01000010

C – 01000011

D – 01000100

E – 01000101

F – 01000110

G – 01000111

H – 01001000

I – 01001001

J – 01001010

K – 01001011

L – 01001100

M – 01001101

N – 01001110

O – 01001111

P – 01010000

Q – 01010001

R – 01010010

S – 01010011

T – 01010100

U – 01010101

V – 01010110

W – 01010111

X – 01011000

Y – 01011001

Z – 01011010

Lower case letters

a – 01100001

b – 01100010

c – 01100011

d – 01100100

e – 01100101

f – 01100110

g – 01100111

h – 01101000

i – 01101001

j – 01101010

k – 01101011

l – 01101100

m – 01101101

n – 01101110

o – 01101111

p – 01110000

q – 01110001

r – 01110010

s – 01110011

t – 01110100

u – 01110101

v – 01110110

w – 01110111

x – 01111000

y – 01111001

z – 01111010