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Colour by Numbers: Image Representation
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This activity shows learners how computers use numbers to represent pictures. A grid is used to represent the pixels (short for picture elements) of a computer screen.

Battleships: Searching Algorithms
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This activity explores the main algorithms that are used as the basis for searching on computers, using different variations on the game of battleships.

Twenty Guesses: Information Theory
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This activity introduces the idea that computer scientists measure information by how "surprising" a message is.

Divide and Conquer: Santa's Dirty Socks
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This activity introduces the idea of "divide and conquer" using a fictitious but serious problem--a pair of dirty socks has accidentally been wrapped in one of the presents that Santa is about to deli

You Can Say That Again!: Text Compression
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This activity helps students learn how computers "compress" text by identifying repeating patterns of letters, words, and phrases.

The Muddy City: Minimal Spanning Trees
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In this puzzle, learners investigate the decisions involved in linking a network between houses in a muddy city.

The Poor Cartographer: Graph Coloring
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In this activity, learners help a poor cartographer color in the countries on a map, making sure each country is colored a different color than any of its neighbors.

Public Key Encryption: Kid Krypto
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In this activity, learners conduct a simulation exercise related to public key encryption and try to intercept a message sent between two learners.

Ice Roads: Steiner Trees
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In this outdoor activity, learners use pegs (like tent pegs) and string or elastic to simulate drill sites and roads in Northern Canada.

Sound Representation: Modems Unplugged
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In this activity, learners listen to songs and decode hidden messages based on the same principle as a modem. As a final challenge, learners decode the binary messages in a music video.

Card Flip Magic: Error Detection & Correction
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This magic trick is based on how computers detect and correct data errors.

Phylogenetics
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This activity lets learners participate in the process of reconstructing a phylogenetic tree and introduces them to several core bioinformatics concepts, particularly in relation to evolution.

Cryptographic Protocols: The Peruvian Coin Flip
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This activity about cryptographic techniques illustrates how to accomplish a simple, but nevertheless seemingly impossible task—making a fair, random choice by flipping a coin between two people who d

Program Your Morning
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In this activity, learners will explore coding by arranging words and phrases to create an order of operations in this low tech version of computer programming.

How to Train Your Robot
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In this activity, learners discover that training a robot can be hard work! Learners investigate how robots complete a task by following a list of sequential instructions.

Cipher Wheel
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In this activity, learners make their own encrypted code to pass along secret messages using a printable cipher wheel.

Get In The Game
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In this design challenge, learners will use computational thinking to design their own board game.

Paint by the Numbers
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In this pencil and paper activity, learners work in pairs and simulate how astronomical spacecraft and computers create images of objects in space.

Crime Scene: The Case of the Missing Computer Chip
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Learners use scientific processes to solve a crime. As they get clues, learners must create a hypothesis then adjust that hypothesis as more information is revealed.

Forward Thinking
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In this activity, learners create their own weather forecast map.