Discovery (Years 0-5)

The Discovery level is made up of a number of fun and engaging “offline” Digital Technologies-based activities centered around the CS Unplugged material at its core. Originally created by Prof Tim Bell at Canterbury University in Christchurch, we have taken these activities and re-worked them with age-appropriate guidance and structures to make it easy for teachers to administer and students to participate. Resources are available in English and Te Reo Māori.

Students work in small groups or pairs to learn about various digital technologies through simple and engaging activities. As they become more proficient, they can choose to compete with other classes, or even reach out to other participating schools!

The Activities

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The Activities 〰️

We aim to make the program as easy as possible for teachers so that you can easily slide in the challenge alongside your lesson plans seamlessly. Below you will find a teachers guide which goes into great detail of how the challenge can be laid out each week, as well as all the different activities and downloadable resources to make them happen!

  • The binary number system plays a central role in how information of all kinds is stored on computers. Understanding binary representation can lift a lot of the mystery from computers because at a fundamental level, they’re really just machines for flipping binary digits on and off.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Binary-Binary-Windows, Binary-Binary

  • This activity builds on the first Binary Numbers activity to reinforce algorithmic thinking, decomposition and other components of the first Progress Outcome in Computational Thinking.

    Download Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Binary-Cards-Cards, Small-Binary-Cards

  • Computer programs are all around us in things like fitness devices, smartphones and alarm systems. These programs are referred to as “applications”, “apps” or “software” and often they are nearly invisible. In devices, software “boots up” when you switch it on and keeps going until you switch it off. Despite this variety, they all work on similar principles that are accessible to students of all ages, and this unit explores some of the fundamental principles in programming.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Kidbots-Job-Badges, Kidbots-8-x-8-grid, Kidbots-arrows, Kidbots-Left-and-Right-Cards

  • Leading on from Activity 3, these Kidbots activities separate the programming from the testing to avoid the programmer adjusting their program on the fly, and also support students to understand that programming is about working together, thinking through what you want to have happen and collaborating to solve problems.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Kidbots-Job-Badges

  • As we use computers more and more, and the amount of data we use increases, we want them to process information as quickly as possible. One way to increase the speed of a computer is to write programs that use fewer computational steps (as shown in the lessons on sorting and searching algorithms). Another way to solve problems faster is to have several computers work on different parts of the same task at the same time, which is what this unit explores.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Sorting Data

  • A parallel Sorting Network enables us to explore how much faster we can sort values into order if we can make simultaneous comparisons. The main six-way parallel network used in these lessons sorts a list of values more than twice as quickly as a system that can only perform one comparison at a time.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Sorting-Network-Cards, Sorting-Network-Template

  • The world is a complicated and imperfect place, and errors can occur when digital information is stored or transmitted. These activities explore how digital devices detect and correct errors in data, and why sometimes computers can detect errors, but don’t have enough information to correct them.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Parity-Cards

  • Searching for a keyword, a value, or a specific piece of data (information) is the basis of many computing applications, whether it’s looking up a bank account balance, using an internet search engine, or searching for a file on your laptop. Computers deal with a lot of information so we need efficient algorithms for searching. This unit explores some common algorithms that are used to search for data on computers, with the opportunity to integrate this learning with statistics.

    Download English | Te Reo Māori

    Resources: Searching-Cards