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Lesson 2:
Lights and drums
Year 8 – Data Representations – Representations: from clay to silicon
 Starter activity

Communication at a distance

Two friends live in huts on opposite sides

of a great lake.

How can they exchange messages from a

distance?

Discuss this with the person next to you.

(They can’t use mobile phones).
 Starter activity

Communication at a distance

Two friends live in huts on opposite sides

of a great lake.

How can they exchange messages from a

distance?

Share your answers with the rest of the class.

 Objectives

In this lesson, we will...

Use paper, lights, and drums to send and

receive messages.

(Like the two friends!)

 Activity 1

Lights and drums

Your group will be assigned:

● A message to transmit
● A coding scheme
● Communication equipment

Your group will:

● Encode the message
● Use the equipment to transmit it
● Receive messages
● Decode them
 Activity 1

Example

Your group will be assigned: This is the message that you will be
transmitting:
● A message to transmit
● A coding scheme kitty
● Communication equipment
This is the coding scheme that you will be
Locate this information in your worksheet. using:
Morse code

This is the equipment that you will be

using:
torch
 Activity 1

Encode

Use the coding scheme to encode your Original message:

message. kitty

Encoded message (in Morse code):

–·–
Locate the handout with your coding scheme. ··
Write the encoded message on your worksheet. –
–
–·––
 Activity 1

Practise

Work out a way to use your equipment for

transmitting your encoded message.

Practise!

Ask for help if you are having trouble with this.

 Activity 1

Transmit

Transmit your encoded message to other

groups.

Don’t worry if things go wrong! Try again.

Ask your teacher for help and tips.
 Activity 1

Receive

Receive encoded messages Received message (in ASCII):

from other groups. 1101011
1101001
1110100
1110100
Write the messages that you receive on your 1111001
worksheet.
 Activity 1

Decode

Receive encoded messages Received message (in ASCII):

from other groups. 1101011
1101001
1110100
1110100
Locate the handouts with the coding schemes. 1111001
Write the decoded messages on your worksheet.
Decoded message:
kitty
 Activity 1

Reflect

Discuss the questions on your worksheet

as a group.

Write the answers on your worksheet.

 Activity 2

The coding scheme that you used

associates each letter with a sequence of
symbols.

dot or dash
 Activity 2

The coding scheme that you used

associates each letter with a sequence of
symbols.

dot or no dot
 Activity 2

The coding scheme that you used

associates each letter with a sequence of
symbols.

0 or 1
 Activity 2

Representation length

The coding scheme that you used Original message:

associates each letter with a sequence of kitty 5 symbols (letters)
symbols.
Encoded message:
What is the length of your original 11 symbols
–·–
message? 4 spaces
··
What is the length of your encoded –
message? –
–·––
 Activity 2

Representation length

The coding scheme that you used Original message:

associates each letter with a sequence of kitty 5 symbols (letters)
symbols.
Encoded message:
What is the length of your original 35 symbols
1101011
message?
1101001
What is the length of your encoded 1110100
message? 1110100
1111001
 Activity 2

Choice of symbols

The coding scheme that you used Original message:

associates each letter with a sequence of kitty 5 symbols (letters)
symbols.
Encoded message:
The choice of symbols is irrelevant. 35 symbols
aababaa
aababba
aaababb
aaababb
aaaabba
 Activity 2

Choice of symbols

The coding scheme that you used Original message:

associates each letter with a sequence of kitty 5 symbols (letters)
symbols.
Encoded message:
The choice of symbols is irrelevant. 35 symbols
●●○●○●●
●●○●○○●
●●●○●○○
●●●○●○○
●●●●○○●
 Activity 2

Link to Computing

The coding scheme that you used In Computing, the symbols used are 0 and
associates each letter with a sequence of 1.
symbols.

The choice of symbols is irrelevant.

 Activity 2

Link to Computing

The coding scheme that you used In Computing, the symbols used are 0 and
associates each letter with a sequence of 1.
symbols.
ASCII (pronounced a-skee) is a coding
scheme used
to represent text
as sequences of 0s and 1s.
 Activity 2

Link to Computing

11010111101001111010011101001111001 In Computing, the symbols used are 0 and

11010111101001111010011101001111001 1.
11010111101001111010011101001111001
11010111101001111010011101001111001 Every piece of information is
1101011110100111101001110100 represented as sequences of
0s and 1s.
 Activity 2

Reflection

How can 0s and 1s be represented in the Share your answers with the rest of the
real world? class.
Hint: think about what you used in the activity to
represent the different symbols.

Reflection
How can 0s and 1s be represented in the
real world?
Hint: think about what you used in the activity to
represent the different symbols.
Activity 2
I would use holes on paper, light,
sound, or electricity in the place of
0s and 1s.
I would use anything that can be in
two different states.
 Activity 2

Reflection

Why have people invented so many Share your answers with the rest of the
different coding schemes? class.
 Activity 2

Reflection

Why have people invented so many

different coding schemes? Because there are many
ways to communicate!

To store information.

Different schemes are

convenient for different
situations.
 Summary

Next lesson

In this lesson, we... Next lesson, we will...

Used paper, lights, and drums to send and Focus on the symbols used in Computing:
receive messages. 0s and 1s.