Do you think computers, phones and tablets are smart? What if we told you that all they understand is two numbers? Stay tuned because this is going to be an eye-opening activity.
You will never think of technology the same way after learning Binary Numbers and Text Encoding!
hello smart parents
If you are not familiar with the activities, please take the time to review the instructions for an optimal learning experience:
hello smart cookies!
We want to introduce you to Dottie and Zac. Dottie is an enthusiastic, ingenious, quick-minded mom who’s curious to understand the world around her. Her son Zac is a very inquisitive, positive and creative kid with a thirst for knowledge.
Join Dottie and Zac while they investigate the secrets around an old computer they found in the attic of their new house. They will need your help to unveil this mystery!
This is going to be no easy feat, but it will definitely be worthwhile fun adventure!
Your first mission is to communicate with that old computer.
the story
Dottie: Interesting… That looks like some sort of really old computer! I wonder if it still works?! Let’s try to turn it on!
Dottie: I don’t think that will work with this computer Zac. There is no keyboard connector. I think these two are the only keys on it…
Zac: So, how are we meant to type in an username?
Zac: What do you mean? Computers have a language?
Dottie: Yes, it is called binary language which only uses binary numbers: zeros and ones.
Dottie: Yes, that sounds right and the computer language is binary code! Do you have a strategy for guessing the username?
Dottie: Hmm, I am afraid we can’t…
Dottie: That is correct, well done! I can help you with that.
Dottie: Let’s break down our complex problem into smaller ones: First, understand how binary numbers work. Second, understand how to translate letters to binary. What do you think the last step could be?
Dottie: Yes, that sounds like a solid plan, doesn’t it?! Well done SMART Cookie! In more technical words, we will use what is called ASCII table to convert characters to decimal numbers, then we can convert the decimal numbers to binary numbers.
Dottie: Well, perhaps you could ask your friends for some help!
binary numbers
You will master the language of computers – also known as binary language, binary numbers or binary code.
Don’t worry if you are still a bit confused. We prepared an activity sheet to help you! It sums up the keys ideas covered in video and some fun practice activities that will get you fluent in Binary!
You should refer to the Activity sheet now!
Make sure to complete Pages 1 and 2 before moving on to the next step as you will need to understand it very well!
Hint! You may find it helpful to play the video again and pause as you go through the it.
Computers are made up of really tiny switches, which are called transistors. Computers use binary numbers to stand for the transistor state. Transistor off = 0. Transistor on = 1.
Well, after all the hard work, we hope you can finally get the joke from the beginning of this post and you can find another one below! Now it’s time to build on your hard work so far and apply your newly gained knowledge to bring binary numbers to life.
ASCII to decimal and binary
That was much easier than working out the conversion from decimal to binary, wasn’t it? Well done in learning how binary numbers work and how to use convert letters to number using the ASCII table! You are ready to complete your mission!!!
You should refer to the Activity sheet now!
You can use Page 3 in the Activity Sheet to help you find the binary number for the each of the letters in your name.
Hint! Once you are done, come back here to check your answer using our translator.
Zac: Now, it is your turn my SMART friends to try and see if your name is a valid username for this antique computer?
computer language translator
learn more about computers!
WELL DONE!!!
👏Great work translating your name to The Language of Computers! Comment below your name and the Binary translation, so we know that you completed your mission.
🙏 Support us by letting your friends know about SMART Edu Challenge using the buttons below!
👇 Comment below your name and the Binary translation, so we know that you completed your mission. 🙌
Stay tuned!
Activity #2: Secret Messages Disclosed
The mysterious computer will send a few encrypted secret messages. What do they say?! You are going to have to learn to encode them to find out!
david, 01100100 01100001 01110110 01101001 01100100
Well done David!
Great initiative – thank you to whoever out it together.
Videos superb – education/amusement balance right, production values first class.
Website a little “scrolley”
Hi George, we are delighted to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for your feedback. We have adapted Activity 2 to make the website less scrolley. We love hearing people’s thoughts about our content and welcome feedback with open arms.
Samantha 01010011 01100001 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110100 01101000 01100001
Well done Samantha, your name is longer, so harder to translate, but I guess the A’s helped a bit 🙂 I hope you have enjoyed the lesson and come back for Activity 2!
AMON 01000001 01001101 01001111 01001110
Well done Amon, we hope you have enjoyed the lesson!
01001001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101111 01101100
Hi Joe, I can tell you are cool too! 🙂 Well done!!!
Kemily 1001011 1100101 1101101 1101001 1101100 1111001
Well done Kemily! We hope you have enjoyed the Activity and come back for more!
01010100 01001000 01000101 010010000 01010101 01001101 01000001 01001110 01010011 01000001 01010010 01000101 01000101 01000101 01000001 0100101
Hello Daire, well done in learning Binary Numbers and ASCII Encoding! I only got the first part of your message -> The humans are. Curious to know that the last word is 🙂
Thanks this was fun!
Annie 1000001 1101110 1101110 1101001 1100101
(also delighted to know she has a Binary birthday (10 01 11)!)
Well done Annie! We are delighted to hear that you enjoy it. That is a great idea, we will include the Binary birthday as a suggestion to add in the next version of this activity!
Rosie
1010010 1101111 1110011 1101001 1100101
But translator checker says is wrong and I don’t know why?!
Also, isn’t the example 77 wrong – shouldn’t it be 1001101? Or perhaps it is me that is not getting it?!!
Thanks though – I love it.
Hi Rosie, we are delighted to hear that you enjoyed the activity. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us your feedback.
I will check with our developer why it is not working as I double checked and you have it right, sometimes spaces at the end or beginning can cause error.
I can’t believe there was a typo there, so many people have already seen it! I have fixed it and have the new version available to anyone joining us now.
Again thank you so much and hope you try Activity 2!
Hello, Thank you. It is good to know that I am not going mad and do understand! I am trying activity 2 now and I am finding it so fun! Thank you so much for doing this. From Rosie.
TOMAS 1010100 1001111 1001101 1000001 1010011
Well done Tomas! We hope you enjoyed the activity and come back for more!
FIONA
1000110
1001001
1001111
1001110
1000001
… I think.
Thank you!
Well done Fiona!!! We are very welcome, we hope you come back for more!
Like it
Wonderful! We look forward to you coming back for the next activity!
Danny
1000100
1100001
1101110
1101110
1111001
I can’t believe I can do ASCII encoding. See you tomorrow.
That is wonderful Danny, well done!!! We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow 🙂
Jonatan = 1001010110111111011101100001111010011000001101110
Well done Jonatan! We just needed to swap the last digit in the last ‘a’ from 0 to 1 instead 🙂 Somethings get lost in translation, it was a lot of 0s and 1s, what a crazy language, right?!
We hope to see you soon 1001010 1101111 1101110 1100001 1110100 1100001* 1101110!
Kesja:
K= 1001011
e= 1100101
s= 1110011
j= 1101010
a= 1100001
I really enjoyed the lessons. I also have a partially binary birthday: 10/01/2009
Excellent work Kesja, we are thrilled to her your feedback. That is true, you would also try converting the day and month to binary – even thought they look binary already! We hope that you come back for the next activity 🙂
Oisín: 01001111 01101001 01110011 01101001 01101110