Although I am an early childhood student, and aim to teach in the P-3 sector, I can still see the relevance and learning in introducing the binary code as early as possible. Ideally, parts of a computer need to be tinkered with first, as computer users and I see this even in Kindergarten! Understanding place value is imperative to understanding binary code, so this concept is really not going to be introduced into the curriculum until children have mastered this abstract concept of number and positional notation!
I have designed a very basic game that can be done in small groups or even individually.
The resources to play the game are:
1. counters
2. egg cartons (cut in half length-ways so each child gets a line of 6 egg cup holes) Using a niko pen, record the positional notation value of each egg cup (e.g. 32's, 16's, 8's, 4's, 2's, 1's colums)
3. a pack of decimal digits printed on card (these numbers would be 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 12, 6, 48, 24, 3, 56, 60, 62, 63, 7, 15, 31)
Instructions:
Each child has their egg carton row in front of them, They each take turns in turning over a decimal number from the card pack. Each child must race their peers to show this number in binary by placing counters in the egg cups in the relevant column. Zero spaces are shown with no counters.
The score for each round is recorded by tally and the student with the most wins per round, wins!
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