Pre-lesson preparation

Students must complete a pre-reading assignment (the first chapter of Blown To Bits, which is available online or in the Resources folder). This pre-reading can be assigned at the end of Unit 0.

Summary

Students will read about the "Digital Explosion" and discuss exponential growth.  They will discuss and share insights on what a world without digital communication would be like and investigate some of the things that are possible because of digital communication. They will then share their findings with the class.

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.A - Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • LO IOC-1.B - Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.
  • LO IOC-1.C - Describe issues that contribute to the digital divide.

• EU IOC-2 - The use of computing innovations may involve risks to your personal safety and identity.
  • LO IOC-2.A - Describe the risks to privacy from collecting and storing personal data on a computer system.

• 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
• 7. Engaging in argument from evidence
• 8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

• HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

Chapter 1 of "Blown to Bits" and the lesson motivate students to begin thinking about the advancement of technology and its impact on many aspects of their lives (both positively and negatively). Subsequent lessons will research particular impacts on society in more depth.

Students will consider a world without digital communication to emphasize the impact that computers have on their everyday lives and how integral computers and digital communication have become to our ordinary existence.

Outcomes

• Students will explain how innovation affects communication, interaction, and cognition.
• Students will explain how computing has impacted innovation in other fields defining a computing device as a physical device that can run a program. Some examples include computers, tablets, servers, routers, and smart sensors. 
• Students will analyze the effects of computing including increased ability to collaborate.
• Students will explain connections between technology, and economic and social differences.
• Students will describe how widespread access to information facilitates the identification of problems, development of solutions, and dissemination of results and the lack of that access limits all of these functions.

TEACHER RESOURCES

In the Lesson Resources Folder:

• Blown to Bits – Chapter 1 reading assignment
• from: http://www.bitsbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/chapter1.pdf
• PowerPoints: What If Part 1, What If, Part 2, What If Part 3

Prior to the Lesson:

• Provide students a copy of the “Questions to Consider” (in the resources folder) and assign the Blown to Bits reading assignment (above)

During the lesson, students will need:

• Student Journal

Session 1

This lesson assumes that students have either taken a previous CS course or that you have done Unit 0, so that students know what a computer is, how to write a basic algorithm, and the basic history of technology. It also assumes that students have read Blown to Bits, Chapter 1.

Getting Started (5 min)

Set a timer. In your journal list all the ways you communicated in the past 24 hours both in person and using technology. Give students 1 minute to list all of the ways they have engaged in communication today (verbal/non-verbal). Compile a class list of commucations used.

Activity (30 min) – Form Teams and Investigate Communication and Digital Communication

Use a creative method for dividing students up into teams of 3-4 (line up by birthday, etc.)

You can use the presentation "What If Part 1" as a guide through this lesson.

• Have each team underline any communication methods that ALL team members wrote down.
• Using the Social Media Post Template handout, have students create a social media post that reflects their current status. Display these posts around the room.
• Present the scenario: what if all digital communication suddenly stopped working?
  • Encourage discussion. Have teams brainstorm a list of possible answers to the following question:  "What will be impacted if digital communication is no longer an option?"
  • Define what a computing device is. (a physical artifact that can run a program. Some examples include computers, tablets, servers, routers, and smart sensors.)
• How could you check the news to find out what caused the communication issue? 
  • Point out that all digital devices would no longer work because they use digital communication internally between the processor and memory.
  • In your teams, create a definition of digital.  (Remember, you don’t have any digital devices to look it up!)
  • What kinds of communication will still work? (Hint: Not the TV: all of the signals are digital.)
  • Have teams try to build up a comprehensive list of the things we use that are digital.
  • Have teams complete the graphic organizer of what would be different in each of these places without digital communication:
    

    At School	At Home	Other Places

Activity (10 min) - Think-Pair-Share 

Have students discuss with their partner the answers to the pre-reading questions from Blown To Bits Chapter 1 (see Questions to Consider in Teacher Resources). 

Choose an open-ended question from the pre-reading questions. Either:

• give examples of things today that are stored in bits
• describe examples of innovations that are neither good nor bad
• list ways that life is more complicated because of the explosion of bits

Have partners pick their most interesting answers and post them or write them on something in the front of the room to share with the class.

Activity: (5 min)

Have students work in pairs to discuss and answer the following questions. (If possible, provide students with calculators. An exact value is not required to formulate an answer. The choices reflect three different types of growth.)

Someone offers you a summer job with a choice of three pay rates:

1. $10 per hour for eight hours of work for day for 30 days.

2. One dollar the first day, two dollars the second day, three dollars the third day, and so on (increasing by one dollar each day).

3. One cent on day one, two cents on day two, four cents on day three, and so on (doubling each day for 30 days).

Which pay rate would you choose? Why? What does this illustrate?

Solution: After 30 days,

• The first choice nets 10*8*30 = $2,400.
• The second offer will pay $465.
• The third offer will pay 2 to the 30th power (minus 1) cents, which is over $10 million.

Clearly, the last choice is the best, even though it starts with the lowest value (although you are unlikely to receive such an offer!)

This activity illustrates exponential growth (which was discussed in the chapter in the context of data growth).

Homework: 

Students may not use any digital devices to complete this activity.  This assignment must be handwritten.  If students need a copy of their assignment for the class discussion, they must write another copy. Have students submit their assignment at the start of the next class.

1. Have the students interview three different people, outside of the class, using the following question:
   • How would life be different if we didn’t have any means of digital communication?
2. Have the students write a summary of the interview that includes the following information:
   • Summary of the responses
   • Your opinion about the responses
   • What you learned by talking to others about the impact of losing digital communication

Session 2

Getting Started (5 min)

Have students write in their journals: What is the most important digital device in your life? Why is it the most important?

Activity (15 min) - Develop a Communication Plan 

Use the presentation "What If Part 2" to remind the students about the scenario from the previous class.  Working in the same teams from the previous class, have the students develop a step-by-step plan for getting a message to their parents without using any form of digital communication.  This activity must be completed without using any digital tool. 

Activity (30 min) - Discussing The Impact of Digital Communication

Teams brainstorm and organize ideas about the impact of digital communication. This activity uses the results from the Day 1 homework.

Discussion: Students work in their teams to answer the following questions: 

1. How have the Web and the Internet changed the way people communicate and collaborate? (be sure to include email, SMS, online problem solving, data gathering and analysis & chat)
2. How does the impact of computing innovations differ between national and socioeconomic groups?
3. Describe a way in which social media has changed the way people communicate in the U.S.
4. In what ways have the Internet and the Web changed health care, access to information, entertainment, and online learning?  How do these changes vary in different parts of the world?
5. Describe how two groups (e.g., in different geographic regions, from different cultural backgrounds, in different socioeconomic classes or different work industries) are impacted differently by social media and online access.
6. Describe how the impact of social media and online access differs in two different countries.
7. How does digitally enabled collaboration enhance human capabilities?

Homework

Each member of your team should choose one of the following topics:

• Science
• Art
• News
• Music
• Government
• Business

*Note – these topics are just suggestions

In the following question, fill in the blank with your chosen topic. Write a paragraph responding to the question.  Be sure to include examples and evidence to support your ideas and answer.

• How does _________ depend on computers?

Session 3

Warm up / Activity 1 (35 min) - A Short Story

Imagine that the digital world that we know now never existed.  There are no computers or cell phones -- no digital communication at all.  Write a short story that takes place in this non-digital world.  Include how your characters would communicate in different situations and how daily life would be.  Be as creative as you can.

If time permits, have a few students share their stories.

Activity 2 (15 min) - Reflections

For this activity, students need to use their last social media post the created on Day 1.

Journal - Hooray! Digital communication has been restored after three years. Look at your last social media post, and think about the following questions. 

1. How could a stranger interpret your last digital footprint? Was it positive, negative, or neutral?
2. How could you change your post to leave a more positive digital footprint?
3. What would be your first social media post now that digital communication has been restored?

Have students discuss their reflections with an elbow partner.

Consider different ways to choose teams and assign team roles

Interview with a User of an Enhancing Technology

If you are familiar with an individual who benefits from an abilities-enhancing innovation or a technology that helps the individual overcome a disability, interview the person about the impact the technology has had on his or her life. Ask them questions about how the innovation works, how it has affected the way they live (the ways in which they play or work). Ask about how it has affected their family and friends. If possible, record the interview. Ask for permission to share with your classmates or to post online.

Speculate about Today's Innovations

Select a recent innovation - something recently in the news. Predict the impact that this innovation will have on individuals. Predict any societal impacts you can foresee. Label the impacts as positive or negative. Explain your reasons for the label.

Summary

Computing greatly affects the everyday lives of today's teens, but many of them are not consciously aware of these influences. In this lesson, students investigate the impact of the Internet on their lives.

Using a presentation about modern computers as an example, the teacher models the process of asking questions, organizing ideas, doing research, and giving a presentation.  Students will then work in assigned groups to create presentations on the Internet and its Impact using online collaboration tools.

Students will experience some of the many collaborative tools available online and develop effective group communication skills.

• EU CRD-1 - Incorporating multiple perspectives through collaboration improves computing innovations as they are developed.
  • LO CRD-1.B - Explain how computing innovations are developed by groups of people.
  • LO CRD-1.C - Demonstrate effective interpersonal skills during collaboration.

• EU CSN-1 - Computer systems and networks facilitate how data are transferred.
  • LO CSN-1.A - Explain how computing devices work together in a network.
  • LO CSN-1.B - Explain how the Internet works.

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.E - Explain how people participate in problem-solving processes at scale.

• EU IOC-2 - The use of computing innovations may involve risks to your personal safety and identity.
  • LO IOC-2.A - Describe the risks to privacy from collecting and storing personal data on a computer system.

• 3. Planning and carrying out investigations
• 7. Engaging in argument from evidence
• 8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

• HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
• HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.

Students should understand more about what the Internet is, what a computer is, and how the Internet affects our daily lives.

Students should develop an improved understanding of the power of the Internet as a positive agent of change.

Students should use collaborative online tools to work in effective groups using good research skills to deliver a worthwhile presentation.

Students describe ways that greater speed, detail and precision in processing information is possible because of computation.

Outcomes

• Students will describe multiple ways that the Internet impacts our lives.
• Students will use good research techniques to find and cite high-quality sources and to synthesize an original understanding of topics researched online.
• Students will define basic vocabulary about the Internet (cloud, server, etc.).
• Students will describe various tools that enable online collaboration.
• Students will collaborate using online tools to develop and refine a presentation.
• Students will collaborate and access information with speed and precision using computational tools.

Teacher Resources

1. Unit 1 Lesson 2 LIGHT.pptx (overview of the lesson)
2. Modern Computerx.pptx (example of a short pecha kucha)
3. Script for Modern computers.docx
4. Bad presentation for contrast.pptx (example of how NOT to create a presentation)
5. Script for bad presentation.docx
6. Research and Collaboration Assessment.docx
7. Pecha Kucha student handout.docx
8. Pecha Kucha Assessment.docx

Student Resources:

1. Access to computers for using online collaboration resources.

Crowdsourcing Resources:

• Article on how crowdsourcing with GPS cellphone data might predict earthquakes: http://mashable.com/2015/04/10/smartphones-earthquake-early-warning-system/

Session 1

Getting Started (5 min)

Journal 

Instruct students to think about the following questions and journal about their thoughts. Afterwards, have them pair up and share their answers with each other. (See slide 2 of the presentation in the lesson folder: "Unit 1 lesson 2 LIGHT".)

• How big is the Internet?
• What kind of information is on the Internet?
• What kinds of communication does the Internet make possible?

Teacher Overview and Student Activity Introduction (20 minutes)

(Use the Unit 1 Lesson 2 LIGHT presentation for this activity.)

Part 1 - Teacher Presentation and discussion (10 min) 

1. Use slides 3-4, and the students' ideas from the journaling exercises, to guide a class discussion on the Internet: what is out there and how does it affect our lives?
   
   • Try to get an idea of how much students know about what is on the Internet beyond email and social media.
   • If students need more idea starters, show the presentations on Communication Changes or Business Changes in the teacher folder.
   • Encourage students to continue to write down the things they know or could look up.
   • Suggestion for follow-up activity: Have students create "memes" and try to spread them through social networking to see the power of communication and collaboration.
2. Slides 5-7: Introduce the question of what a computer is. Then, using the script in the teacher folder, deliver the pecha kucha presentation on Modern Computers. Finally, discuss with the students what their assignment will be and give them some tips for creating their own presentation.                          
3. Notes for teachers on presentation: 
   • "Pecha kucha" was originally used to refer to a specific talk format that contains 20 presentation slides, each of which are presented for exactly 20 seconds, using an auto-advance timer.  The goal is to create a tight, effective presentation that moves quickly and conveys a lot of information in a short period of time.
   • For this exercise, you will be demonstrating a "half pecha kucha" that includes 10 slides -- presented at 20 seconds a slide, the presentation will last for 200 seconds (just over 3 minutes).
   • You will need to practice this presentation ahead of time, especially if you are not familiar with the "pecha kucha" format!   

Part 2 - Introducing Student Activity (10 min)

1. In the remainder of the lesson, student groups will create their own "half pecha kuchas" on a topic about the Internet that they select.
2. Ask students what they learned:
   • About the content: modern computers.
   • About delivering a pecha kucha presentation: you need a script; you need to practice; it's automatically timed; you don't read from the screen.
3. Slides 8-10: Tell students they will be working for the next few days to create presentations about the Internet. Encourage some brainstorming of good questions to ask and write them down.  (Slides 9-10 illustrate how this was done for the Modern Computer pecha kucha. Slide 11 includes some tips on doing good research. Lastly, slide 12 introduces the criteria that will be used to assess the presentation.)

• As you are doing this, give students the "Pecha Kucha Student Handout."
• Have students consider what online collaborative platforms are available to them to create a product together (Office 365, Google Drive, etc.)
• Note: If your students need more clarification on making a good presentation, you may want to deliver the "bad presentation for contrast" presentation (in the lesson folder, along with corresponding scripts) and have them describe why the presentation is bad. 

Group Activity: Collaboration and Organizing Ideas (30 minutes)

(See Research and Collaboration Assessment Rubric.) Since this is the first significant collaborative activity of the course, discuss team dynamics and norms, communication skills and conflict resolution, in addition to an overview of what online collaborative tools can be used. Review the collaborate assessment rubric together and creatively introduce the good interpersonal skills you expect (see below)

If possible, act out examples of how NOT to use good interpersonal skills. ( a cooperative student with some drama experience can be a great partner to plan in advance with)

1. Communication: talk a lot, talk when others are talking, don't listen, be distracted, be completely unclear and confusing, talk off-topic, etc.
2. Consensus building: make all the decisions yourself, be pushy about a particular idea without getting feedback or other ideas, etc.
3. Conflict resolution: be angry, offended, sad, etc. when anyone disagrees
4. Negotiation: flip a coin to make a decision, go to the teacher immediately without trying to resolve a problem, etc.

Assign students to investigate and use online collaboration tools to:

• Collect the best questions on what they will research (Google docs, Office 365, etc.).
• Create a mind map to organize the questions. MindMup is recommended for creating mind maps because it requires no signup. A list of tools is available here: http://elearningindustry.com/the-5-best-free-mind-mapping-tools-for-teachers
• Collect images and links to research on platforms like Pinterest, Google drive, or links in a document. (There are many other options.)

Sessions 2 - 3

Group Activity: Research and Presentation Preparation (65 minutes)

Part 1 - Preliminary research and collaborative development of pecha kuchas on the impact of the Internet (20 min)

Part 2 - Preliminary presentations/sharing and feedback (10 min)

Part 3 - Research and collaborative development of complete pecha kucha presentations on the impact of the Internet (35 min and homework / out-of-class time as desired)

Class Activity: Presentation of Research (20 min)

(See the self and group assessments and "Pecha Kucha Student Handout" in the lesson folder.)

• The timing for this session assumes that there are 4-5 group presentations, each in the pecha kucha 3.5-minute format.  
• Every student should present some of the slides; the assessment includes both individual and group components.
• Give feedback and get comments about the advantages of working as a team, highlight teams that demonstrate good teamwork skills. 

Wrap up (10 min)

Share Student Learning

• Review knowledge gained from student presentations about facts learned, the research process, collaboration, and presentation skills.
• Ask how each student was able to reflect their own, personal ideas as part of a collaborative group.

• Discuss how computation facilitates the creation and modification of computational artifacts with enhanced detail and precision.

• Suggestion: Have students create memes and try to spread them through social networking to see the power of communication and collaboration.

Teachers are encouraged to have students present single slides and give each other feedback before continuing to do the research for the complete presentations.

Students are working in collaborative teams for the first time, use reflections and dialog to assess how effectively they are using online tools to collaborate and how they are resolving issues working as a team.

Students create a presentation while working in groups and using online collaboration tools. A rubric will be used to assess the student group presentations along with self-reflections. 

Students will read about and discuss the issues that arise from the use and misuse of technology. Over the two sessions, students will assess their current uses of computing devices and then narrow their focus to research and then discuss social media, online retail and banking, cloud data storage, and government surveillance as a class.

• EU CRD-1 - Incorporating multiple perspectives through collaboration improves computing innovations as they are developed.
  • LO CRD-1.C - Demonstrate effective interpersonal skills during collaboration.

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.A - Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • LO IOC-1.B - Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.

• EU IOC-2 - The use of computing innovations may involve risks to your personal safety and identity.
  • LO IOC-2.A - Describe the risks to privacy from collecting and storing personal data on a computer system.

• What are some potential beneficial and harmful effects of computing?
• How do economic, social, and cultural contexts influence innovation and the use of computing?

These materials may be useful if you want to spend some time with the entire group discussing a few key topics.

• Video: "Your Facebook life in 62 Seconds" http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/tech/social-media/facebook-look-back-video/ 
• Article on Facebook about privacy:  https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ .  
• Article: Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments_of_Computer_Ethics

Session 1

AP Exam Engagement Plan - Step 1

Ask students:

What benefits come from taking the AP Exam?

Who should take the AP Exam?

Show the  AP Exam Goals presentation.

Discuss student responses to the questions after the presentation.

Getting Started (10 min) 

Assign each student a number from 1 to 4.  Students read the associated articles and prepare a 1 minute summary of a way computing fostered creativity.

1. in medicine (https://time.com/5710295/top-health-innovations/).
2. in communication (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/research/emerging-innovations.html).
3. in engineering (https://interestingengineering.com/11-of-the-most-important-yet-underrated-computing-inventions).
4. in arts, music or entertainment (https://www.complex.com/style/2013/12/digital-art-technology/the-gif).

Groups share their summaries.

Guided Activity (40 min)

Vocabulary:

Ask students to define the following.  Compare their definitions to the ones below.

1. Computer
2. Computer System
3. Computer Network
4. The internet

1. Computer - something that can execute a program.  Many devices (tablets, smartphones, robots, smart sensors) contain computers.
2. Computer system - a collection of computers and software that must function together to complete a task
3. Computer network - a type of computer system allows communication between multiple computers
4. internet - the one worldwide, public computer network

Computing innovations can have unintended consequences. We will investigate some ethical considerations that should be considered before releasing a new development. For this activity, group students in pairs.  If there is an odd number of students then a group of three may be used. 

• Students work in pairs to examine the Wikipedia article, “Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments_of_Computer_Ethics) and identify and share the two commandments they think are the most commonly violated.

• Students read commandments and individually identify the two they think are most frequently violated.

• Students share the two commandments they identified with partners and discuss why they choose the commandments they did.

• Pairs select two they think are the most significantly violated.  Collect the responses from the class.

As a class suggest revision(s) to the 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics.

 Divide the class into four groups. Each topic group will work together to explore resources and prepare to share with the other groups tomorrow. Each student in the group should make their own copy of the worksheet, so they can bring them back to their original jigsaw groups. Students use their worksheet (ExploringInnovationsWorksheet.docx) to identify and record

• potential impacts of the technology,

• whether they primarily affect individuals or society as a whole, whether they are positive or negative,

• evidence of that impact

• the source they used to find the information.  

After completing the worksheet, students should complete the Venn diagram (ExploringInnovationVenn.docx) to summarize key impacts of an innovation.

The topics (and examples of positive (+) and negative (-) impacts) include:

• Social media (+ connecting at a distance, - cyberbullying)

• Online retail, banking, and businesses (+ convenience, - identity theft)

• Cloud data storage (+ information sharing, - loss of privacy)

• Government surveillance (+ find terrorist threats, - loss of privacy)

For each of the above topics, there is a resource sheet in the lesson folder that can be provided to student groups. (Optionally, you may want to create additional resource sheets, or let students select other topics and find their own resources.)

Wrap Up (5 min)

Each group should discuss its progress this far in researching their topic.  Students will have 10 minutes tomorrow to prepare to make a presentation to the rest of the class.

Session 2

Getting Started (3 min)

Students should take a few minutes to journal about the following prompt: 

• Think about your typical day. How often do you think that your image has been captured by a surveillance camera? List all of the places where your image may have been captured.  Also, consider what you have done in the past week. What data might have been collected about you somewhere over the past week?

Guided Activity (30 min)

Topic Groups: Have students briefly assemble into topic groups to compare and revise notes.

Jigsaw Groups: Have students assemble into their original jigsaw groups. Each member will present the information on the topic that was researched. All notes need to be shared within these groups.

Regroup and discuss the topics as a class if time permits.

Wrap Up (5 min)

Each student should select a topic that they would like to explore further and write the topic in their journal. It might be a narrow subtopic from the broader topics that were explored within this lesson. They might also want to write down a few interesting innovations connected to a topic. They will refer back to this during the practice performance lesson later in the unit.

Summary

A bit is a single unit of information. Bits are the fundamental building blocks of digital computing.  There are many different ways to represent a single bit physically, and collections of bits can be combined to represent everything from numbers to electronic books, to control programs for interstellar probes. In this lesson, students will learn how bits are stored and how they can be used to represent information. Students will further explore how numbers can be represented in binary form, how to convert numbers between these different forms, and how they are used by different applications.

This lesson should be repeated with increasing levels of expectations.  The first time this lesson is taught the emphasis is on binary and conversion to decimal, and representation of letters and colors using binary - ASCII and RGB colors.

The second time it is taught should be during Unit 2.  The previous topics should be reviewed with the emphasis this time on conversion to hexadecimal and representations of decimal values to support the idea of different number types in Python.

The final time it should be taught - perhaps at the beginning of the Internet Unit - the emphasis should be on comparing binary and hexadecimal values without converting them to binary. This should support students understanding of the formatting and use of internet packets.

Outcomes

• Understand the abstraction of a "bit" and how bits can be used to represent different kinds of information.
• Be able to convert numbers between decimal, binary, and hexadecimal forms.
• Be able to identify formats used to represent numbers, pictures, audio, and video data.
• Understand how these forms of bit representation are used in modern technology.
• Be able to use software to extract information stored in a computer.

Overview

Session One

1. Getting Started (5 min) - Jacquard loom
2. Guided Activity (10 min) - Light bulb abstraction of bits
3. Interactive Teacher Presentation (25 min) - "It's Just Bits"
4. Wrap Up (10 min) - Binary conversions worksheet

Session Two 

1. Getting Started (5 min) - Journal and completing a worksheet
2. Guided Activity (20 min) - Conversions (two options: Binary Game or hexadecimal conversions)
3. Real-World Connections (20 min)
4. Wrap-up (5 min) - Journal

Session Three - New for 2020-2021

1. Getting Started (5 min) - Journal data representation strategies
2. Guided Activity 1 (20 min) - Use software to extract information from a web site.
3. Guided Activity 2 (20 min) - Use software to obtain and extract information from a table
4. Wrap-up (5 min) - Journal

Optional Activities

• Homework - Generate conversion worksheets using http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/numbers/systems.html 
• (30 min) Web-quest to explore different ways of physically representing bits.
• Four research activities on:
  • Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace
  • Hollerith's Tabulation Machine
  • Qbits
  • Weaving with the Jacquard Loom

Source

Parts of this lesson were adapted from code.org.

• EU DAT-1 - The way a computer represents data internally is different from the way the data is interpreted and displayed for the user. Programs are used to translate data into a representation more easily understood by people.
  • LO DAT-1.A - Explain how data can be represented using bits.
  • LO DAT-1.C - For binary numbers: a. Calculate the binary (base 2) equivalent of a positive integer (base 10) and vice versa. b. Compare and order binary numbers.

• EU DAT-2 - Programs can be used to process data, which allows users to discover information and create new knowledge.
  • LO DAT-2.A - Describe what information can be extracted from data.
  • LO DAT-2.D - Extract information from data using a program.
  • LO DAT-2.E - Explain how programs can be used to gain insight and knowledge from data.

• MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• MP4: Model with mathematics.
• MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

• N-Q.1-3: Reason quantitatively and use units to solve problems

• RST 12.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account.
• RST 12.2 - Determine central ideas and conclusions in the text
• RST 12.3 - Precisely follow a complex multistep procedure
• RST 12.4 - Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases
• RST 12.7 - Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media
• RST 12.10 - Read and comprehend science/technical texts
• WHST 12.1 - Write arguments on discipline specific content
• WHST 12.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes
• WHST 12.8 - Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source
• WHST 12.9 - Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

• 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

The students will...

• Understand the abstraction of a "bit" and how bits can be used to represent different kinds of information.
• Be able to convert numbers between decimal, binary, and (optionally) hexadecimal forms.
• Be able to identify formats used to represent numbers, pictures, audio, and video data.
• Understand how these forms of bit representation are used in modern technology.
• Be able to extract information from webpages using software.

• How can computing and the use of computational tools foster creative expression?
• How are vastly different kinds of data, physical phenomena, and mathematical concepts represented on a computer?
• How can computational models and simulations help generate new understanding and knowledge?

• How are number values converted across decimal, binary, and hexadecimal representations?
• How are digital colors represented with hexadecimal codes?
• What is the algorithm to convert a number to or from hexadecimal with another number system?

For the Student

• Journal
• Option: Access to a web browser with Flash to play the Binary Game: http://www.crazygames.com/game/binary-game
• Option: Access to a web browser and collaborative file creation/sharing site, such as Google Documents, to complete a web quest 

For the Teacher

• Optional: punch cards of any kind
• Access to a web browser to show YouTube videos:
  • Jacquard Loom video (in Getting Started): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwozgRPLVC8
  • Octopus Counting video by Michael Littman (in "JustBits" presentation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p-9-nK-mwY 
• Optional: Create a document (Representing Bits) in the file sharing site and make it accessible to all of the students. Add four headings (Punch cards, Magnetic polarity, Electrical voltage, Light intensity) under which students will add content in the collaborative research activity.
• Optional: Additional conversion worksheets generated at http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/numbers/systems.html 

In the Lesson Resources folder:

• Presentation: JustBits
• BinaryConversionWorksheet
  
  • Give these directions to students during the lesson
• AdditionalResource_bin2dec
• AdditionalResource_BinaryWorksheet
• AdditionalResource_binmagic
• For Lecture:
  • HexBinaryExamples
  • HexDecimalExamples
• Hexadecimal worksheets:
  • Worksheet: HexConversionsWorksheet
  • Homework: HexConversionsHomework
• Answer Keys:
  • HexConversionsWorksheetKEY
  • HexConversionsHomeworkKEY

Available on the Web for Teachers:

• Binary, Decimal, Hexadecimal Conversion Chart
  • http://tonystrains.com/download/DCC_DecBiHex_Chart.pdf
    

Session One

Getting Started (5 min)

Jacquard loom: early computer programming

The teacher will introduce the "Jacquard Loom," an early machine that made use of punch cards to make complicated textiles.

• View the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwozgRPLVC8 (2:35) Summary: Developed in 1801 by Joseph Jacquard--this loom used punch cards to structure a series of operations. This loom is considered to be an important to the development toward computer programing.
• If you have punch cards, pass them around while students are watching the video.

Guided Activity (10 min)

Represent Values as a Light Switch

1. Instruct students to answer these questions with an elbow partner:
   • Using a single light switch, how can you represent the value 0? 1?
   • If you have two light switches (connected to two different lights in the same room), how many values can you represent? Describe how you would represent each value (numbers, symbols, etc.).
2. Invite students to share their ideas with the class.
3. Engage the entire class with the following questions. Show the various combinations.
   • If I add a third switch, how many values can I represent?
   • How many values can I represent with four switches? Do you notice a pattern?
   • What is the minimum/maximum values that can be represented with a fixed number of switches? Make the connection: when the computer stores values as on/off switches it can store a range depending on the number of bits (light switches) from all off (0's) to all on (1's)

Teaching Tip: Guiding the students toward understanding that the number of switches determines how many numbers can be represented. The pattern is 1 switch = 2 (or 2¹) numbers, 2 switches = 4 (or 2²), 3 switches = 8 (or 2³), etc.

Interactive Teacher Presentation (25 min)

Use the "JustBits" presentation in the lesson folder to explore different ways to represent bits, and different ways in which bits can be used to store different kinds of information.

General Presenting Tips:

• Throughout the presentation, the slides have questions on them that the students should be thinking about. Try to ensure that students are actively considering these questions and that they understand how to answer them before moving on.  
• You may wish to call on students randomly, have everyone write down an answer, or have students suggest different answers that you write on the board and then have the class work on.  (Note: Incorrect answers are a great opportunity to diagnose and remedy conceptual errors. Remember, there are no "bad answers," just ones that reveal different levels of understanding.)

Presentation Guide:

• As you go through the slides, discuss how the different uses of bits relates to the representation of bits. Eight bits can be interpreted in many ways:  as an unsigned integer from 0 to 255, as a signed integer from -127 to 128, as a single ASCII character, or as a red, green, or blue color value associated with a pixel in a screen display.
• Emphasize to the students that a "bit" is just an abstraction. It refers to the value of a single piece of information stored in an "on/off", "zero/one", or "yes/no" format.  Similarly, any given interpretation a collection of bits as information is an abstraction that lets us move from "a bunch of bits" to "data and information."  
• Slide 5 (Storing Bits): If you are planning to do the optional web quest to explore different bit representations, you could encourage students to think about different ways that bit could be stored, to get them thinking about that question.
• Slide 11 (Conversions): This is a fairly quick introduction to binary/decimal conversions.  You may wish to spend some time at the board working through more examples.  Students will have an opportunity later in the class to use the "Binary Game" (or optionally paper worksheets) to practice binary/decimal conversion.
• Slide 12 (Hexadecimal): For hexadecimal number conversions, you may wish to spend a bit of extra time on this slide to make sure they understand the concept more clearly.
• Practice Problems, Slide 18: Give the students a few minutes to start working on the first problem, then lead the class in a brief discussion to make sure they’re approaching it correctly.
  • They should be multiplying the number of pixels (600 * 400 = 240,000) by the number of bytes (3 bytes in a pixel) by the number of bits in a bite (8 bits in a byte).
  • The total number of bits = (240,000 * 3 * 8) = 5,760,000 bits.
  • CD answer: 44,100 samples/second * 16 bits/sample = 705,600 bits/second.
  • One 3-minute song = 705,600 bits/second * 60 seconds/minute * 3 = 127,008,000 bits. 
• Slide 19: Represent data and instructions in binary. Possible answers could use 4 bits per number and 2 bits per operator such as ( 00 for +, 01 for -, 10 for *, 11 for /) as follows: 

  • 9 + 4 as 1001 00 0100

  • 11 – 3 as 1101 01 0011

  • 2 * 5 as 0010 10 0101

  • 15 / 5 as 1111 11 0101

Say: In this course, we will use the Python programming language.  In Python the size of an integer we represent is not limited to 32 or 64 bits as some programming languages.  Python integers are limited in size only be the memory space the computer has. The exam reference sheet produced by the College Board for this course invisions integers the same way that Python does - only limited in size by the computer's memory.

Wrap Up (10 min)

Converting between decimal and binary

Use the "BinaryConversionWorksheet" in the lesson folder (from Code.org) to let students explore (individually or in pairs/small groups) how to build an algorithm for converting binary to decimal. As you progress through the activity, answer questions as they arise, or ask students to explain how they arrived at the answer to check for understanding.

Other extensions and activities that may be useful:

• List the numbers from 0 to 15. Show students how they are represented in binary. Practice representing the grade level of various students in binary.
• Show an algorithm for converting binary to decimal.
• Show an algorithm for converting decimal to binary.
• Convert an IP-V4 address from decimal to binary.

Session Two 

Getting Started (5 min)

Introduction

• Have students describe what they know about representing numbers in binary code from the previous lesson (journal or discussion). (You may want to put a few conversion problems on the board as an entry check.)
• Complete any remaining problems in the "Student Activity Guide: Converting Decimal to Binary."

Guided Activity: Conversions (20 min)

Option 1: 

• Have the students play the Binary Game. http://www.crazygames.com/game/binary-game or https://studio.code.org/projects/applab/iukLbcDnzqgoxuu810unLw. You could also have the students teach a friend how to play the game, or create a quiz to determine if the friend has learned the basics of the binary number system.  To ensure progress, you could have the students show you and/or a partner when they have reached a particular level of the game.

Option 2:

• If your students are comfortable with binary/decimal conversions, you could have them also master hexadecimal conversions.  (See "HexBinaryExample"s and "HexDecimalExamples" in the Lesson Resources folder for specific directions and suggested examples and/or the PowerPoint slides in the lesson folder.)
• You may want to add additional examples or have students come to the board to show their work as you go through the different types of conversions.  (See the "HexConversionWorksheet" for distribution of those additional practice problems done during class.)

Extension: If you want to give your students more practice problems for in-class practice or homework, you can use the worksheet generator at http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/numbers/systems.html

Real World Connections (20 min)

How are text, colors and images saved in hexadecimal format? Select some of the following to present and discuss with the class.

1. How is text converted to hexadecimal format?
   Ascii to Hexadecimal conversion chart
   Text to hexadecimal conversion tool - http://www.string-functions.com/hex-string.aspx
   
   
2. Where are hexadecimal numbers used to represent digital data? Colors!
   Color Conversion Website: http://rapidtables.com/convert/color/index.htm
   
   
3. How are picture files saved with hexadecimal format?
   http://www.colorcodepicker.com/
   
   
4. Color Chart of 216 Web-safe Colors in hexadecimal form - http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp
5. Floating point numbers (decimals/fractions) are also represented in binary. Challenge students to think of how 2.5 would be written in binary (place values are in powers of 2, so to the right are 2^-1 (one half), 2^-2 (one quarter), 2^-3 (one eighth) etc. So, 2.5 decimal = 10.1 binary ; 3.25 decimal = 11.01 binary; 4.75 decimal = 100.11 binary. See if they can figure out the pattern. Notice that 1/10 is impossible to represent accurately this way, causing any number of complications.

Wrap-Up (5 min)

Journal

Students should consider the following prompt, and record their thoughts in their journals:

• Why is the abstract idea of an image stored in a jpeg file useful even though it hides important details about the actual file format?  When a user takes a digital photograph, they capture a digital image in their camera. Assuming the pictures are in the jpeg format, explain the difference between the abstract idea of an image and what is actually stored by the camera. 
• Alternative question: Now that you have seen hexadecimal, what other number systems might be useful in computer science?  Give advantages and disadvantages of each. 

Session Three - New for 2020-2021

Getting Started (3 min)

Introduction

Have students discuss with elbow partners then add to their journals a description of how the computer represents a collection of bits as:

• a word
• a color
• a picture

Guided Activity: 

Herding Bits Activity 1 (20 min)

Open Google Drive and create a new Google Sheet.  Copy the URL of this New York Times article into cell A1. We will use the software in Google Sheets to find the author of this article and then you will use it to find the author(s) of two other New York Times articles of your choice.

Find how the New York Times identifies the author of its articles.

View the New York Times article on the web page.

Highlight the name of the author, right click and select inspect (the element) that contains the author’s name.

Find the itemprop property in the element and verify that it is assigned the same value as in the formula below.

=IMPORTXML(A1,"//span[@itemprop='name']")

Configure and use the IMPORTXML function in Google Sheets.

Copy the formula above into cell H1 and press enter.

Verify that the name of the author is displayed in cell H1.

Working with elbow partners identify two other New York Times articles and use this technique to have the software in Google Sheets round up the author of each article.

Herding Bits Activity 2(20 min)

Sometimes the information is contained in a larger structure (herd) called a table. This time we will use the software in Google Sheets to copy a table from a web page then use the table values to find information.

Collect the bits contained in the World’s Tallest Buildings table found on Wikipedia. 

Copy the URL from the link above to cell A1 on a new Google Sheet.

Copy the formula below into cell A3 to herd the bits from the second table on the web page to your spreadsheet.

=importhtml(A1,"table",2) 

Copy the table values to a new sheet.

Select lines 3 through the end of the table and copy them to the clipboard (ctrl-c).

Create a new Google Sheet.

Use ctrl-space-c to paste the values into the new sheet starting at cell A2. 

Select column D and use the Data menu to sort the data into alphabetical order by country name.

Find the three countries with the most buildings listed among the world’s tallest buildings.

Discuss with elbow partners what other tables might be interesting to scrape from the internet.  Try and find one of those tables online and herd those bits into a spreadsheet.

Wrap-Up (5 min)

Elbow partners share the results of their attempts with the class students should explain in thirty seconds:

What table they tried to find.

Their success at scraping or herding the bits.

What information they might extract fromt their table.

Guidance for Practice Questions - Question Set 1

Questions in the AP Classroom Question Bank may be used for summative purposes. 

Sixty of the 80 questions are restricted to teacher access.  The remaining 20 questions are from public resources. 

Questions are identified by their initial phrases.

A computer program uses 3 bits to represent int...

An online store uses 6-bit binary sequences to ...

Optional Activities

Activity 1 - Collaborative Web-Quest (20 min)

Part 1 - Exploring Physical Bit Representations

• Group students into small teams. Assign each team to research how computers represent bits with one of the following:
• Punch cards
• Magnetic polarity
• Electrical voltage
• Light intensity
• Students can record their findings in a common file such as a Google doc, so that all students can edit and see the combined results of the research. Encourage students to create and/or add images that more completely illustrate what they have learned.

Teaching note: The research and writing activity in this lesson presents an opportunity to talk about copyright laws and emphasize that copied content must be credited to the rightful author or organization. 

Part 2 - Sharing the research

• Allow students in each group to briefly share the most important details about what they learned about their assigned topics. If more than one group researched the same topic, they can report to the class as one team.
• Encourage the class to ask questions.
• Ask students if they know of any additional ways to represent bits.

Teaching note: Model writing skills through a variety of writing opportunities and prompts. Encourage students to write complete sentences that clearly communicate their ideas.

Activity 2 - Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace

• Have each student research the machines designed and programmed by Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. How did these machines represent bits? Investigate Babbage's and Lovelace's intellectual roles in creating their designs.
• Communicate your learning in any effective format. Consider images, a collage, a recording, a screen play script, or a compare-and-contrast chart of the contributions to computer science of both Babbage and Lovelace.
• Student should prepare to discuss their findings with the class.

Activity 3 - Hollerith's Tabulation Machine

• Have each student research the machines that were designed by Herman Hollerith. How did these machines represent bits? What was the purpose of the machines? How did his device change history?
• Predict how history might have been different if Hollerith hadn't created this device.
• Student should prepare to discuss their findings with the class.

Activity 4 - Learn about Qbits

• Have each student research "Qbit" and how it is used in quantum computing. Be particularly attentive to the vocabulary used to describe this technology. What implications does it have for the future of computing? Report your findings in any effective format.
• Student should prepare to discuss their findings with the class.

Activity 5 - Weaving

• Have each student create a small weaving project by following the directions shown in the video about the Jacquard loom:
  • http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Weave-on-a-Frame-Loom/step2/Warp/
• Students respond to this prompt in their journals:
  • How did the invention of the Jacquard weaving loom change society? (consider technologically, economically, socially) Compare these changes to those brought by a recent innovation in computing technology. Be sure to speculate on the long-term impact and significance of these inventions.

The Extension section above gives a variety of outside activities, some of which are appropriate for verbal and others for tactile learners.

1. Instead of flashlights, the same task can be done with large cards that are black on one side and white on the other.
2. If you have the space for a physical activity, have two (or more) teams (of 4 or 5 students each) line up.  
   • Each student represents a bit, with the student on one end being the bit in the 1's place, the next student representing the 2's place, the next the 4's place, etc.   
   • The students start in a standing position, which represents neither 1 nor 0. To represent a 1, the student's arms must be stretched straight overhead; to represent a 0, the student must squat down.  
   • You then call a number (one that can be represented using that many bits).  The two teams then race to get their team to represent that number. The first team to have it correct gets a point. They normalize (all stand with no arms up) and a new number is called.  
   • Ask them about patterns they find during the game.  (The 1's place student should notice that if the number is odd, their arms are up, but if the number is even, they are squatting.  The student representing the highest bit should notice that their arms are up if the number is larger than or equal to their place value.)

Note: If there are students in the class with physical limitations who are unable to stand, stretch, or squat, the game can be modified appropriately: 

• Have the students play the game seated, with a card in their lap. (It represents neither a 1 nor a 0 when in their lap.) They will hold up a black side (to represent 0) or a white side (to represent 1) when a number is called.

Visual - Decimal, Binary, Octal, and Hexadecimal Number Systems Video -   http://whyu.org/whyUPlayer.php?currentchapter=3&currentbook=1&youtubeid=5sS7w-CMHkU

OR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oaBT-TndCs

Kinesthetic - Hexadecimal Drum Machine - http://www.mathsisfun.com/games/hex-drums.html 

Auditory - Hexadecimal File Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyBf4Y2mVzs

Extension Activity 1. Students that have mastered the conversion techniques can peer-tutor students [one-on-one] that are having difficulty solving the conversions.

Extension Activity 2. Students can observe their computer’s network interface card (NIC) MAC address in hexadecimal, and convert the MAC address to binary and decimal. 

• To find your computer’s network interface card (NIC) instructions: http://www.miami.edu/index.php/telecommunications/student_services/student_technical_support/find_your_mac_address/
  

See algorithms of number system conversions:

• Hexadecimal to Decimal Number Systems Converter in Excel to see algorithm - http://www.schooltube.com/video/c98baf4e105241b283d4/Bin2Dec2Hex%20-%20Lesson%206%20-%20Converting%20a%20hexadecimal%20number%20to%20decimal
• Hexadecimal to Binary Number Systems Converter in Excel to see algorithm - http://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Hexadecimal-to-Binary-Converter

      - http://www.schooltube.com/video/04a13760ada644a2a7d4/Bin2Dec2Hex%20-%20Lesson%203%20-%20Converting%20a%20hexadecimal%20number%20to%20binary

Alternative presentation for Gifted Students doing Decimal to Hexadecimal Conversion:

For decimal number x:

1. Get the highest power of 16 that is less than the decimal number x:
   
   
2. 16ⁿ < x, (n=1,2,3,...)
   
   
3. The high hex digit is equal to the integer if the decimal number x divided by the highest power of 16 that is smaller than x:
   
   
4. d_n = int(x / 16ⁿ)
   
   
5. Calculate the difference Δ of the number x and the hex digit dn times the power of 16, 16n:
   
   
6. Δ = x - d_n × 16ⁿ
   
   
7. Repeat step #1 with the difference result until the result is 0.

Example

Convert x=603 to hex:

n=2, 16²=256 < 603

n=3, 16³=4096 > 603

So

n = 2

d₂ = int(603 / 16²) = 2

Δ = 603 - 2×16² = 91

n = 1, x = Δ = 91

d₁ = int(91 / 16¹) = 5

Δ = 91 - 5×16¹ = 11

n = 0, x = Δ = 11

d0 = int(11 / 16⁰) = 11₁₀ = B₁₆

Δ = 11 - 11×16⁰ = 0

(d₂d₁d₀)  = 25B

Answer: x = 603₁₀ = 25B₁₆

Learn to Count in Binary and Hexadecimal - http://webelfin.com/webelfindesign/counthex.html

ADDITIONAL/ALTERNATE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT MATERIAL or Class Activity if time permits - from unplugged.com

http://csunplugged.org/binary-numbers

Brainstorm reasons for storing and communicating secret messages.  Challenge students to think of both helpful and problematic reasons.  Students record at least two of each.

View steganography presentation.  Presentations are available on YouTube.

• Abdullah Seddiq (MIT Blossoms) has Counting Systems with teacher's guides and additional resources. This video aims to explain counting systems (Decimal, Binary, Hexadecimal). Students will get to know how to convert numbers between these systems. Also students will learn how to do some byte and bit level operations. They will use a Visual Basic (VB) application that changes colors through logical operation on numbers. See also The Magic Picture: Steganography in Bitmap Files

• Video - http://blossoms.mit.edu/videos/lessons/magic_picture_steganography_bitmap_files

Assessment Questions:

• Describe the pattern for even and odd numbers that you see in the binary number system. Speculate on why this pattern exists.
• Why is the binary number system used in computers?
• Why is the Jacquard loom important in the history of computing?
• How are bits represented in punch cards?
• How are bits represented magnetically?
• How are bits represented with voltage?
• How are bits represented with light?
• Are students correctly answering questions in the Getting Started activity: Represent values with a light switch? On the Student Activity Guide: Converting Decimal to Binary?
• Decimal, binary, and hexadecimal value conversions:
  • Write the step-by-step process needed for the following number conversions:
    • hexadecimal to binary
    • binary to hexadecimal
    • hexadecimal to decimal
    • decimal to hexadecimal
  • Assign a sequence of consecutive hexadecimal numbers - one to each person.  After they have converted them to decimal and to binary, have them compare to find patterns in their answers.
  • Distribute worksheets so all students practice conversions of all types.  See "BinaryConversionWorksheet" and "HexConversionWorksheet"

Journal check - questions presented as described in the lesson plan

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

• Why is the binary number system used in computers?
• Describe the pattern you observe for even and odd numbers in binary. Why do you think this pattern emerges?
• What other patterns do you see in binary numbers?
• Convert the ages of your family members to binary. How many bits are needed to express the ages?
• Describe an algorithm for converting decimal numbers to binary.
• Describe an algorithm for converting binary numbers to decimal.

Getting Started section: questions on converting between bases and describing the purpose of hexadecimal numbers.

Summary

Computing innovations have the potential to significantly impact our lives, both positively and negatively.  In order to understand the full range of impact (or lack of impact) of a given innovation, one must consider how differences in geographic location, culture, and socioeconomic status influence the effect that given innovation has on a specific group of people.  Students learn about the digital divide on national and global levels and analyze how three different computing innovations impact people, making ethical considerations while doing so in order to determine if the impact is beneficial or harmful. 

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.A - Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • LO IOC-1.B - Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.
  • LO IOC-1.C - Describe issues that contribute to the digital divide.
  • LO IOC-1.E - Explain how people participate in problem-solving processes at scale.

• MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

• RST 12.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account.
• RST 12.2 - Determine central ideas and conclusions in the text
• RST 12.6 - Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure
• WHST 12.1 - Write arguments on discipline specific content
• WHST 12.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

• 1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
• 7. Engaging in argument from evidence

• Innovations have positive and negative impacts.
• The digital divide can significantly influence the impact and utility of a given innovation for different groups of people.
• The movement towards Open Access and open-source software is decreasing the width of the "digital divide."
• In order to understand the impact of a given innovation, it is necessary to consider if and how the innovation affects different groups of people in the world and whether that impact is beneficial or harmful to that group.

Outcomes

Students will:

• Discuss the ethical concerns that arise from a given computing innovation.
• Describe the ways in which the digital divide affects individuals and groups of people.
• Analyze the impact of a given computing innovation with respect to a specific group of people and categorizing the impact as beneficial or harmful.

• What are some potential beneficial and harmful effects of computing?
• How do economic, social, and cultural contexts influence innovation and the use of computing?

For the Student

• Journal
• Copy of Find My Friends App article (if not reading online): http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/these-smartphone-users-share-how-tracking-app-find-my-friend-has-saved-them/story-fn6vihic-1226752063613
• Copy of Analyzing Impacts of Digital Innovations worksheet (Lesson1_5.docx in lesson resources folder)
• Copy of Lesson 1.5 Homework worksheet (Lesson1_5hw.docx in lesson resources folder)

For the Teacher

• Access to a web browser to show YouTube videos:
  • Is Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethical? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95KhuSbYJGE
  • PBS News Hour segment about the digital divide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X537MiN6COI

• Access to a web browser to pull up links:
  
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AF18DUIH1Y
  • http://computer.howstuffworks.com/napster.htmhttp://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/
  • http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2?view=map 
  • http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34780127

In the Lesson Resources folder:

• Presentation (Lesson1_5)
• Analyzing Impacts of Digital Innovations Worksheet (Lesson1_5wkst)
• Homework (Lesson1_5hw)

Getting Started (5 min)

Present "Lesson1_5" PowerPoint slides (in the Lesson Resources folder).

• Slide 2: Students will respond to the following prompt in their journals:  List three questions you could ask to decide if an innovation is "ethical".
• When the students finish, have them discuss their answers.  (Possible answers: does it cause physical, emotional, cultural, environmental, economic or social harm?)
  
  

Guided Presentation (20 min)

Analyzing the Ethics of an Innovation (Slides 3 – 10) :

• Slide 3: Show students the definition of “ethics”.
• Slide 4: Have students vote as to whether or not “ethical” and “legal” are the same. This is especially relevant with respect to innovations because laws cannot be made about a specific technology before it exists.  I.e. laws governing the use of a specific technology must be made after its emergence. 
• Say: As programs grow large and they are used and relied upon by more and more users. Often they have impacts that the programmers never intended.  We are going to look at two such cases.  First, read the first three paragraphs of The Coming Software Apocalypse published by the Atlantic on September 26, 2017.
• Ask:
  • What impact did the designer or programmers never consider?
  • Should they have considered it?
  • Could they consider all possible impacts?
• Slide 5: Present the necessary considerations for analyzing the impacts of an innovation, focusing on the first point about whether or not a given impact is negative or positive.
• Slides 6-9: Present the background information on Napster and the legal proceedings that resulted from copyright infringement issues. It is important to establish the state of online music sharing/streaming in the late 1990’s when Napster emerged so that students understand the controversy surrounding its creation and implementation. Mention the conflict with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and how not having access to information/data under the DMCA can be harmful as well as beneficial.
• Slide 10: Have students analyze whether or not they think Napster was an ethical innovation by writing down the beneficial and harmful impacts of its creation and use.  Slide 11 provides some possible answers to the prompt.

The Digital Divide (Slides 12 - 17):

• Slide 12: Revisit the necessary considerations for analyzing the impacts of an innovation, emphasizing the second point about geography and socioeconomic factors influencing the impact a given innovation has on a specific person or group of people.
• Slide 13: Some students have little/no understanding of how other people live in the world and the factors that limit impact or increase the divide among various groups of people based on geography, culture, and socioeconomic status. Have students discuss their thoughts on the factors in a person's life that would cause Napster's creation and use to have no impact.  Slide 14 gives specific reasons as to why a given person would be unaffected by a music-sharing (or any Internet-based) technology.
• Slides 15-17: Ask students if they’ve heard of the digital divide.  Then present these slides, which define the term “digital divide” and discuss factors that contribute to it in the United States and on a global level.  The slides contain several links and videos to supplement the information:
  • Table showing the estimated number of Internet users in each country in 2016: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/
  • A PBS News Hour segment about the digital divide from 2013 (Show 0:00 – 3:27): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X537MiN6COI – Video emphasizes that digital divide also includes digital literacy in addition to having access as well as how socioeconomic factors, age, race, etc. correspond to digital literacy and access.
  • Map showing percentage of Internet users by country in 2014: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2?view=map  – Could ask students which regions of the world have the highest and lowest percentage of internet users per country.
  • An article from 2015 about technologies that Google and Facebook are separately developing in order to provide Internet access to places in the world that do not have the infrastructure – includes a short video (1:07): http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34780127
    
    
• Slide 18: Reducing the Divide (The Open Movement)
  • Students describe the factors that lead to the digital divide.
  • Discuss the concepts of Open Access, Creative Commons licensing, and open-source software. Ask the students to consider how public access to scientific results improves people's lives and reduces the gap between "haves" and "have-nots".

Independent Analysis (20 min)

For this portion of the lesson, students will be analyzing the impacts of two innovations: artificial intelligence and the Find My Friends App.  A worksheet for this activity (“Analyzing Impacts of Digital Innovations”) can be found in the lesson resources folder (Lesson1_5wkst.docx).

• Slide 19 (Innovation #1): Students will be watching this video about artificial intelligence (0:00 – 5:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95KhuSbYJGE .  Point out the example on the worksheet table that has been given as a model of how to fill out the table.  Give students time to fill out the front of the worksheet as they watch the video and a few minutes after watching the video to write down more of their thoughts.  Then share out in groups and as a class.  The specific contents of the video are as follows:
  • Basic assumption: It’s unethical NOT to develop artificial intelligence.
  • Robots that learn, problem-solve, and are creative have been around since mid-20th century.
  • People are threatened: why hire people if you can have a robot?
  • Robots for everything: Google self-driving car, Watson going for diagnostic medicine, Perry Mastron for legal needs
  • Robots can do so much: not just boring, repetitive, dangerous, but also complex thinking jobs
  • Is it ethical to stop improvement? The ethic of truths: we need things like cheaper, better medical care.
  • The printing press challenged the status quo. Old inventions caused problems, too.
  • Ethics of progress: does the possibility of atrocity (nuclear bomb) mean we shouldn't develop nuclear power?
  • Is it unethical to stop the development of artificial intelligence?
  • (STOP at 5:12) after that, it’s about emotion. (skip it)
• Slide 20 (Innovation #2): Have students fill out the back of the worksheet as they read the article about the Find My Friends App: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/these-smartphone-users-share-how-tracking-app-find-my-friend-has-saved-them/story-fn6vihic-1226752063613 (If doing this lesson without a computer, you’ll need to print out copies of the article for students to read.)  Allow students to discuss their findings with a partner or in groups.  Get a few responses from groups if time permits.

Wrap Up (5 min)

• Slide 21: Students journal about the following prompt:

If you come up with an innovation that solves a problem, what concerns do you need to consider

before releasing it to the world?  

(Possible answers: Whom will it benefit or harm?  Are there people it won't reach at all?)

Guidance for Practice Questions - Question Set 2

Questions in the AP Classroom Question Bank may be used for summative purposes.  

Sixty of the 80 questions are restricted to teacher access.  The remaining 20 questions are from public resources. 

Questions are identified by their initial phrases.

An author is considering publishing an e-book u...

Historically, it has been observed that compute...

Homework:

Students will analyze the innovation of 3D printing in the same manner they did for AI and the Find My Friends App, except they will be finding at least one online source on their own from which to draw their information.  Provide students with the “Lesson 1.5 Homework” found in the lesson resource folder (Lesson1_5hw.docx) and provide them with the instructions given on Slide 22.   

This assignment gives students practice analyzing the impacts of an innovation on their own, as well as attributing facts to a resource and the information to include for that resource for the Explore Performance Task.  (The Explore PT is introduced later in the curriculum.)  The worksheet Lesson1_5hw (in curriculum resources folder) can be used to support students, or they can write this information on a blank piece of paper, etc.  The worksheet does not specify which innovation they are researching, so you could reuse it for future research related to the impacts of innovations. 

For students who require more time for processing and writing down the impacts of AI, show the video a second time (the narrator in the video talks quickly).  

If time is limited, split students up so that half of them are analyzing AI and the other half are analyzing the Find My Friends App.  Have students review their findings with another student who analyzed the same innovation.  Then have them jigsaw (https://www.teachervision.com/group-work/cooperative-learning/48532.html ) with students who analyzed the other innovation to share what they found.

Guided notes would be helpful for ELL or SpED.

Journal:

• Have students respond to the following prompt:
  • If you come up with an innovation that solves a problem, what concerns do you need to consider before releasing it to the world?

Homework:

• Research the impacts of 3D printing.

Explore Performance Task

Summary

Previous lessons in the "Your Virtual World" have investigated the impact of computer innovations on society. In this lesson, students will learn how using technology can enhance our abilities to solve larger and broader problems (problem solving). The lesson begins by examining reCAPTCHAs, which most students will be familiar with, but they may not realize how they solve two significant problems. It continues with solving problems at scale with distributed computing and crowdsourcing. 

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.E - Explain how people participate in problem-solving processes at scale.

• MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

• RST 12.4 - Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases
• WHST 12.1 - Write arguments on discipline specific content

• 8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

• Distributed computing solutions can be used to solve problems, collect data, assist with collaboration, and assist scientific research.
• Strategies for effective collaboration and the selection of the right online tools greatly enhance the ability to solve problems.
• A computer program or its results may be rapidly shared with a large number of users and can have widespread impact on individuals or groups.

Outcomes

• Students will learn how computers are used to aggregate the computational power of individuals to solve large-scale problems through citizen science activities.
• Students will participate in a citizen science project. Aggregate problem-solving is sometimes called "crowdsourcing."

• How does computing enhance human communication, interaction, and cognition?

For the Student

• Access to the website Zooniverse:
  • https://www.zooniverse.org/#/projects 
• Access to the article Crowdsourcing, For the Birds 
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/science/earth/crowdsourcing-for-the-birds.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
• Access to the website Akinator.com or 20Q
  • http://en.akinator.com/
  • http://www.20q.net/ 

For the Teacher

• Access the video Fight Spam and Save Shakespeare to show to the class
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoybhowC4LE
• Additional Videos about Crowdsourcing:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyub6vIG3Q
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-38uPkyH9vI
• Crowdsourcing websites:
  • http://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing

  • http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/idea/citizen-science-projects/ 

  • https://www.zooniverse.org/ 

Getting Started (5 min)

Think-Pair-Share: Solving problems with reCAPTCHA

1. Show an image of a reCAPTCHA (by visiting a website that employs this technology or from an image search).
2. Direct students to describe for their elbow partner when and where they have encountered this on the web and discuss why it is used. Discuss how quickly a program can be distributed online and make a difference to many people across the world.
3. As a class, view the video Fight Spam and Save Shakespeare and discuss:
   • What two problems are being solved with reCAPTCHA?
   • How has reCaptcha used the aggregate computing power of millions of people to solve problems in digitizing old books?
   • What other aggregate/crowdsourced solutions to problems come to mind?

Say: Today we are going to examine Crowdsourcing a strategy for enlisting the work of many people to identify problems, solve problems and share solutions via the internet. And we are going to examine how computing technology facilitates the collection and creation of this information.

Guided Activities (40 min)

Part 1 (10 min) - Tracking birds with citizen science

As a class, read the following from the paragraph from the NY Times article Crowdsourcing, For the Birds.

Tens of thousands of birders are now what the lab calls “biological sensors,” turning their sightings into digital data by reporting where, when and how many of which species they see. Mr. Martinka’s sighting of a dozen herons is a tiny bit of information, but such bits, gathered in the millions, provide scientists with a very big picture: perhaps the first crowdsourced, real-time view of bird populations around the world. 

Watch the video What is Crowdsourcing?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyub6vIG3Q (2:50)

Point out distributed computing to solve big science problems: 

Display some examples from a service like BOINC that lets you help cutting-edge science research using your computer. BOINC downloads scientific computing jobs to your computer and runs them invisibly in the background. It's easy and safe.

About 30 science projects use BOINC; examples include Einstein@Home, IBM World Community Grid, and SETI@home. These projects investigate diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research.

Part 2 (15 min) - Participate in citizen science 

Citizen science is scientific research conducted at least in part by individuals from many different locations who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices. You don't need to be a scientist to contribute to citizen science.

• Direct students to the Zooniverse website: https://www.zooniverse.org/#/projects 
• Allow students to choose and participate in a project
• Discuss how their participation could help scientists and how the internet could help the process scale to large projects.
• Identify components of citizen science.
  • A problem people can help solve.
  • A way for people to participate that leverages the internet
  • A way to turn the data into knowledge. Students brainstorm possible methods to turn collected data into information

Part 3 (15 min)

Turning data into information

Direct students to Akinator.com or 20Q and play an online game that aggregates human information.  Teachers may have students do this independently or work together as a whole class.

• Discuss how the game acts intelligently.
• Discuss how computer intelligence can supplement human intelligence.
• Discuss how adding human input can make the game more intelligent.

The Power of Human / Computer collaboration

Direct students to Kickstarter.com. Students choose what they think is worthy of funding and respond to the following

• Describe the project they chose and why they think it should be funded
• Explain the value - in addition to money -  the project developers cant get from the response to their Kickstarter campaign

Wrap-up (5 min)

Watch Video: Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding Explained (3:48)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-38uPkyH9vI

While students watch the video they take notes about crowdsourcing including:

• how people participate
• how the internet helps crowdsourcing scale 

Guidance for Practice Questions - Question Set 3

Questions in the AP Classroom Question Bank may be used for summative purposes.  

Sixty of the 80 questions are restricted to teacher access.  The remaining 20 questions are from public resources.  

Questions are identified by their initial phrases.

Both online newspapers and social media sites are

Which of the following is a true statement abou...

Homework:

Students describe how people participate in a problem-solving process that scales using examples from citizen science (or another example of problem-solving.

Additional Crowdsourcing Examples

Wikipedia

The purpose of this activity is for students to contribute their knowledge to the aggregated collection of knowledge known as "Wikipedia."

• Divide the class into pairs or small groups.
• Investigate how Wikipedia pages are modified and then identify a topic they would like to revise. 

Waze

 http://allthingsd.com/20130719/after-waze-what-else-can-mobile-crowdsourcing-do/.

Sentiment Analysis

https://www.datacamp.com/community/tutorials/simplifying-sentiment-analysis-python

Search Trends as Predictors 

https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US

Picture Stitching 

"Picture Stitching" is the practice of blending hundreds of photos to create one huge detailed picture.

Stitched 365-gigapixel image of Mont Blanc created by stitching together 70,000 images http://www.in2white.com/# . 

Geo-referenced 3D model of Zurich 

Can students imagine additional possible crowdsourcing or citizen science projects?

How does online collaboration improve problem solving abilities?

Sample assessment questions:

• Explain the dual purposes of a reCAPTCHA.
• Explain how people can add value to citizen science projects, using several examples.
• Explain how people can add value to an on-line guessing game. 
• Create a possible flow chart or description of how data collected online can be used to help computers learn.

Summary:

This is the unit assessment for the first unit of the AP Computer Science Principles curriculum - Your Virtual World.  This curriculum provides both a testbank of questions with answers for objective questions, and a sample final unit exam prototype for teacher use extracted from the testbank.  

Outcomes:

• Students will have demonstrated their learninging in this unit through answers to both objective and essay questions

Overview:

1. Hand out assessment (2 min)
2. Students write answers to assessment (46 min)
3. Collect and grade the assessment (2 min)

• EU DAT-1 - The way a computer represents data internally is different from the way the data is interpreted and displayed for the user. Programs are used to translate data into a representation more easily understood by people.
  • LO DAT-1.A - Explain how data can be represented using bits.
  • LO DAT-1.C - For binary numbers: a. Calculate the binary (base 2) equivalent of a positive integer (base 10) and vice versa. b. Compare and order binary numbers.

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.A - Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • LO IOC-1.B - Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.
  • LO IOC-1.E - Explain how people participate in problem-solving processes at scale.
  • LO IOC-1.F - Explain how the use of computing can raise legal and ethical concerns.

• EU IOC-2 - The use of computing innovations may involve risks to your personal safety and identity.
  • LO IOC-2.A - Describe the risks to privacy from collecting and storing personal data on a computer system.

• RST 12.2 - Determine central ideas and conclusions in the text
• RST 12.4 - Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases
• RST 12.7 - Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media
• RST 12.8 - Evaluate the hypotheses, data, analysis, and conclusions in a science or technical text
• RST 12.9 - Synthesize information from a range of sources
• RST 12.10 - Read and comprehend science/technical texts
• WHST 12.1 - Write arguments on discipline specific content
• WHST 12.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes
• WHST 12.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
• WHST 12.5 - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting
• WHST 12.6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update writing products

• 3. Planning and carrying out investigations
• 4. Analyzing and interpreting data
• 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
• 7. Engaging in argument from evidence
• 8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

• HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

This assessment ascertains that students have a basic understandings of all the concepts presented in the unit, therefore, all learning objectives are assessed in this unit.

• How can a creative development process affect the creation of computational artifacts?
• How can computing and the use of computational tools foster creative expression?
• How can computing extend traditional forms of human expression and experience?
• How are vastly different kinds of data, physical phenomena, and mathematical concepts represented on a computer?
• How does abstraction help us in writing programs, creating computational artifacts and solving problems?
• How does computing enhance human communication, interaction, and cognition?
• How does computing enable innovation?
• What are some potential beneficial and harmful effects of computing?
• How do economic, social, and cultural contexts influence innovation and the use of computing?

Students should be aware of the magnitude of impact on individuals and society that result from technological advancements in computing, as well as the rapid pace of change that occurs because of new developments.

In the Lesson Resources folder:

• "Unit 1 Summative Assessment Test DATABASE - AP CSP"
  • the compiled Unit Test testbank 
• "Unit 1 Summative Sample Test student copy- AP CSP"
  • a sample exam
• "Unit 1 Summative Assessment DATABASE ANSWERS"
  • answer key for the Unit Test testbank
• "Unit 1 Summative Sample Test ANSWERS- AP CSP"
  • answer key for sample exam
• The instructor will have to review and develop their own evaluation of the essay questions.

Getting Started (2 min)

Make sure each student has a copy of the assessment and the necessary writing instruments.

Independent Activity (46 min)

Allow one 45-50 minute class session to administer this assessment.  

Distribute the Unit Assessment Test, which consists of 25 objective questions and a choice of four essay prompts. (Teachers can instruct students in selecting one or more short essay responses for students to answer, based on teacher preferences and time allotments.) 

Wrap Up (2 min)

Collect all papers from the students.

This is the summative unit assessment for Unit 1 - Your Virtual World.  A sample summative test and a testing databank of questions are provided by the curriculum.  (Note that the sample assessment may not be appropriate for some classes, depending on the particular focus that the teacher has taken -- e.g., the sample assessment includes hexadecimal conversions, which are an optional component of Lesson 1-4.)

This is the first of three lessons where students research computing innovations.

This lesson will focus on what a computing innovation is and what the harmful and beneficial effects are.

• EU CRD-1 - Incorporating multiple perspectives through collaboration improves computing innovations as they are developed.
  • LO CRD-1.A - Explain how computing innovations are improved through collaboration.

• EU IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences.
  • LO IOC-1.A - Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • LO IOC-1.B - Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.

Session 1.

Explain that in this lesson students will investigate computing innovations and their impacts.  The first session will be for research and presentation preparation.  Our next session will be for the presentation of the research.  The research and presentation will be done in groups of three.

Introduction

Brainstorm a list of innovations that might be computing innovations.   Have the class vote on which innovations are computing innovations according to these guidelines:

• It requires a computing device to accomplish its prime function.
• It includes a program as an integral part of its function.
• It can be hardware (a physical device), software (a computer program), or a computing concept such as e-commerce that depends on hardware and software.
  Note that hardware requires software in order to accomplish anything intelligent, and software requires hardware in order to run.

Have the class evaluate the innovations listed to see if any of them should be placed in a different category according to this definition.

Say: Like all innovations, computing innovations have an original purpose that motivated their design and guided their development but the innovation may have impacts and effects beyond that purpose.  Whether intended or not computing innovations have changed how we communicate with our families and friends, how we obtain and collect news, how we investigate and prosecute crimes and how we conduct business.

Activity 1

Place class members into teams of three.

Have each team select a computing innovation - not necessarily one previously discussed - and research answers to the following questions.  Students should collect at least one reference for each answer.

• What was the function of the innovation intended by the developers?
• How does the innovation use computing and what information or data does it collect or use to perform its function?
• Who has been impacted in a positive way by the innovation and how were they impacted?
• Who has been impacted in a negative way by the innovation and how were they impacted?
• How has the use of the innovation changed the way people do things?

Activity 2

Students use their research to prepare a poster presentation for their project. All team members must be involved in the presentation.

Session 2

In this lesson, we will study and present views of beneficial and harmful impacts of computing innovations.  The same effect may be beneficial to some and harmful to others.  Each presentation must answer the following questions.

What is the name of the computing innovation?

What is the function of the innovation?

How does the innovation use computing?

How might the innovation impact fields other than computing such as the sciences or the arts?

What information does it need to perform its function?

Who has been impacted in a positive way by the innovation?

How were they impacted positively?

Who has been impacted in a negative way by the innovation?

How were they impacted negatively?