Subject Area

Engineering

Age or Grade

Eighth Grade

Estimated Length

90 minutes

Prerequisite knowledge/skills

 Exponents

Description of New Content

 Introduction to Binary Numbers as the Language of Computers

Goals

  • The student will be exposed to the “true” language of computers “0” and “1”.

  • The student will be able to covert the numbers 1-16 from binary into decimal.

 

Materials Needed

 Handout

Procedure

 Before class, write on the board: “There are 10 types of people.  Those who understand binary and those who don’t.”  Engage students having three students attempt to read the statement.  Presumably, each student will  read “10” as “ten”.  After the third student, the teacher indicates the correct reading (reading “10” as “two”).  When students indicate that the teacher’s reading is incorrect, indicate that “10” in the statement is the binary numbers “1” “0” not the decimal number “10”.  Explain that computers only use these binary numbers and binary language.  Human language is converted into this machine language and vice versa.  Introduce the concept of a binary number and contrast with a decimal number.  Show students how to perform binary to decimal conversion and and illustrate this process by step-by-step conversion of the binary numbers 0 – 15 to their decimal equivalents.

Evaluation

 Handout

Extensions

Conversion from decimal to binary. Digital devices.