Colour by numbers
Children colour grids using rows of 0s and 1s, and learn that a computer stores a picture as numbers.
Steps
- Explain that screens are made of tiny squares called pixels (short for picture elements).
- Show a simple black and white picture. Each pixel is either black or white, so a computer only needs to remember which.
- Hand out a small grid. Each row has numbers. Colour a square black for 1 and leave it white for 0.
- Colour row by row. A picture should appear. Check with a neighbour.
- Try a bigger picture in a group, with each child doing some rows.
- Discuss: how did the numbers tell you the picture?
Talk about it
- What would happen if one number were wrong?
- How many numbers do you need for a bigger picture?
- How could we show colours instead of black and white?
CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from CS Unplugged by the University of Canterbury Computer Science Education Research Group (CS Unplugged), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Original lesson, with pictures · License: CC BY-SA 4.0
There are no pictures here. The original lesson has the pictures and printables.
Changes made: Simplified, shortened and translated by Open Cosmos with AI
This adapted lesson is shared under the same license (CC BY-SA 4.0).