Data Representation

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Digital Literacy and Computer Science

Grade(s)

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview

Computers are machines that do stuff with information. They let you view, listen, create, and edit information in documents, images, videos, sound, spreadsheets, and databases. They let you play games in simulated worlds that don’t really exist except as information inside the computer’s memory and displayed on the screen. They let you compute and calculate with numerical information; they let you send and receive information over networks. Fundamental to all of this is that the computer has to represent that information in some way inside the computer’s memory, as well as storing it on disk or sending it over a network.

To make computers easier to build and keep them reliable, everything is represented using just two values. You may have seen these two values represented as 0 and 1, but on a computer, they are represented by anything that can be in two states. For example, in memory, a low or high voltage is used to store each 0 or 1. On a magnetic disk, it's stored with magnetism (whether a tiny spot on the disk is magnetized north or south).

This chapter will examine how data is stored on computers, be it text, images, colors, etc.

Digital Literacy and Computer Science (2018) Grade(s): 09-12

DLCS18.HS.28
Develop a model that reflects the methods, procedures and concepts used by computing devices in translating digital bits as real-world phenomena, such as print characters, sound, images, and video.

Knowledge

Students know:

computing devices use methods, procedures, and concepts to translate digital bits from an abstract form into real-world phenomena such as sound, images, etc.
each device has a process for translating from computational information to real-world phenomena.

Skills

Students are able to:

model the translation of digital information to real-world phenomena.
understand that this process is that way in which computing devices and humans interact.

Understanding

Students understand that:

for computing devices to communicate in a way in which humans understand, there is a process (methods, procedures, and concepts) used to translate computational information to real-world phenomena.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

CS Field Guide

License Type

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

https://csfieldguide.org.nz/en/chapters/data-representation/

Approved Date

2019-07-10

Design by Adaptive Theme