UNIT Ch.

1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Unit 2 - Digital Information
This unit explores the way large and complex pieces of digital information are stored in computers and the associated
challenges. Through a mix of online research and interactive widgets, students learn about foundational topics like
compression, image representation, and the advantages and disadvantages of different file formats. To conclude the unit,
students research the history and characteristics of a real-world file format.

Chapter 1: Digital Information

Big Questions Enduring Understandings
How are images and other complex information 1.1 Creative development can be an essential
represented in a computer? process for creating computational artifacts.
How can we reduce the size of digital information 1.3 Computing can extend traditional forms of
and what tradeoffs are involved? human expression and experience.
Why are there so many different formats for 2.1 A variety of abstractions built upon binary
representing the same kind of information? sequences can be used to represent all digital
data.
3.3 There are trade offs when representing
information as digital data.

Week 1

Lesson 1: Bytes and File Sizes

Research

Students are introduced to the standard units for measuring the

sizes of digital files: bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc.
and research the sizes of files they make use of every day.
Lesson 2: Text Compression
Widget | Individual and Group Discovery

At some point we reach a physical limit of how fast we can send bits and if
we want to send a large amount of information faster, we have to find a way
to represent the same information with fewer bits - we must compress the
data.

Lesson 3: Encoding B&W Images

Widget | Concept Invention | Individual Creation

Students explore methods for encoding digital images in binary

which requires representing metadata such as width and height as
well as pixel data. Students use the the Pixelation widget to
encode simple B&W raster images.

Week 2

Lesson 4: Encoding Color Images

Students learn about the RGB color encoding scheme and use an updated
version of the pixelation widget to encode color images. Hexadecimal
notation is useful for representing larger groupings of binary digits.

Lesson 5: Lossy vs. Lossless Compression

Research

Students learn the difference between lossy and lossless

compression. They then research three different real-world file
formats for images and sound and compare them using the
concepts and vocabulary they’ve learned through the unit.
 Lesson 6: Rapid Research - Format Showdown
Project | Research

In this lesson students will conduct a small amount of research to explore a file format either
currently in use or from history. Students will conduct research in order to complete a "one-
pager" that summarizes their findings. They will also design a computational artifact (video,
audio, graphic, etc.) that succinctly summarizes the advantages of their format over other
similar ones.

Chapter Commentary
Key Concepts and Pedagogy
Increasing Focus on Research: Unit 2 includes an increasing focus on research skills students will use throughout the
rest of the course and eventually on the Explore PT. Researching computing topics is a challenging skill which students will
need to develop separately from the other skills and content knowledge. Lesson 5 and the Rapid Research activity in
Lesson 6 in particular explicitly review these research skills as students apply the knowledge they’ve developed elsewhere
in the unit to research the differences between familiar file formats.

A Familiar Pedagogy: Many of the lessons in this unit will feel similar to Unit 1 Chapter 1. Students will explore real world
concepts and problems in data representation through collaborative problem solving activities. This process is aided
through the introduction of two new widgets, the Text Compression Widget in Lesson 2 and the Pixelation Widget in
Lessons 3 and 4. As with the Internet Simulator, students can’t “break” these tools and so are encouraged to freely explore
them with minimal content frontloading to discover the concepts they highlight. In keeping with the “ABC CBV” approach,
technical vocabulary is only introduced only once these exploratory activities ensure all students have developed a shared
understanding of the concepts.
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 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 1: Bytes and File Sizes
Research

Overview View on Code Studio

In this lesson students are introduced to the standard units for Objectives
measuring the sizes of digital files, from a single byte, all the way up
Students will be able to:
to terabytes and beyond. Students begin the lesson by comparing the
size of a plain text file containing “hello” to a Word document with the Use appropriate terminology when describing
same contents. Students are introduced to the units kilobyte, the size of digital files.
megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte, and research the sizes of files they Identify and compare the size of familiar
make use of every day, using the appropriate terminology. This digital media.
lesson foreshadows an investigation of compression as a means for Solve small word problems that require
combatting the rapid growth of digital data. reasoning about file sizes.

Purpose Preparation
The simple purposes of this lesson are: You should verify that you know how to
look at the sizes of files on computers that
1. Get terminology out in the open your students are using (see activity).
2. Become somewhat conversant with file types and sizes For the getting started activity might want a
3. Grapple with orders-of-magnitude differences between things. Word processing program (such as MS
The 8-bit byte has become the de-facto fundamental unit with which Word) and plain text editor (such as Notepad
we measure the “size” of data on computers, and in fact, today most or TextEdit) open and ready.
computers only let you save data as combinations of whole bytes; The teaching remarks and content corners
even if you only want to store 1 bit of information, you have to use a in this lesson contain lots of little bits of
whole byte to do it. And many computer systems will require you store history that you might choose to share at
even more than that. Messages sent over the Internet are also various points in the lesson.
typically structured as messages with byte-offsets. KEY Bytes and File Sizes

Paralleling the explosion of computing power and speed, the sheer

size of the digital data now created and consumed every day is
Links
staggering. Units of measure (terabytes) that previously seemed Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
unfathomably large are now making their way into personal documents you plan to share with students.
computing. This rapid growth of digital data presents many new
opportunities and also poses new challenges to engineers and For the Students
programmers. The implications of so-called Big Data will not be Bytes and File Sizes - Activity Guide
investigated until later in the course, but it's good and interesting to be
Make a Copy
thinking about the size of things now.
CS101 - Kilobytes Megabytes Gigabytes

Agenda Terabytes

Getting Started (10 mins)

File Size Comparison: .txt vs .doc
Activity (30 mins)
Wrap-up
Review worksheet
Foreshadow Compression
Assessment
 Teaching Guide
Getting Started (10 mins)
 Remarks
 Content Corner
As we start a new unit about Data and Digital
Information we need to get familiar with terminology Why is a Byte 8 bits?: The 8-bit byte was not always
about data and different types of data files. standard. Computers used many different "byte" sizes
over the course of history, depending on hardware and
Vocabulary: Recall that a single character of ASCII text how addressable memory worked. However, much of the
requires 8 bits. The technical term for 8 bits of data is a early computing world relied on representing data and
byte. computer instructions encoded in ASCII text where every
character is 8 bits. Thus, 8-bits was such a common
A byte is the standard fundamental unit (or “chunk size”) chunk-size for representing information that it stuck and
underlying most computing systems today. You may have they gave it its own name - byte.
heard "megabyte", "kilobyte", "gigabyte", etc. which are There are various accounts about why it was called a
all different amounts of a bytes. We're going to learn “byte” but most point to early days at IBM where “bite” was
more about them today. used to to refer to groups of 8-bits that a computer was
processing, as in it could “bite” off 8 bits at time. The
spelling was changed to “byte” to avoid confusion with
File Size Comparison: .txt vs .doc “bit”.
Prompt: In addition to the actual text of a document, it is Bytes became the fundamental unit with which we
usually necessary to store the formatting information that measure the “size” of data on computers, and in fact,
allows the text to be displayed correctly. We might today most computers only let you save data as
combinations of whole bytes; even if you only want to store
wonder just how much extra information, i.e. how many
1 bit of information, you have to use a whole byte to do it.
extra bytes, we need to store when we include all of this
formatting. Let's find out!

If a single ASCII character is one byte then if we were to store the word “hello” in a plain ASCII text file in a computer, we
would expect it to need 5 bytes (or 40 bits) of memory.

What about a Microsoft Word document that contains the single word "hello"? How many more bytes will a Word document
require to store the word “hello” than a plain text document?

Discuss: Have students silently make their prediction, then share with a partner, then share with the group. Prompt a
couple students to share why they chose the size they did.

 Demonstrate: Do a live demo where you show the size

 Teaching Tip
of the different files. Here are some files you can
download to use. Try a Live Demo: If you wish, it might be more fun to
create these files in front of your students, saving them on
Plain text document hello.txt
the desktop for a quick demo. To make a plain ASCII text
MS word document hello.docx file you’ll need to use the correct program:
To find the actual size of a file on your computer, do one PC/Windows: use Notepad
of the following: Mac: use TextEdit (Note: TextEdit needs to be switched
into plain text mode from rich text. Go to Format →
PC/Windows: Right-click and choose “Properties”
Mac: Ctrl+click and choose “Get Info” Make Plain Text)

In general, the Word Doc should be thousands of

times larger than the plain text. For the files above:

hello.txt - 5 bytes
hello.docx = 21,969 bytes

Review: Review students predictions to see how close they were.

 Remarks
 The big difference in file size between .txt and .docx is due to the extensive formatting information included along with the
actual text in .docx. Modern data files typically measure in the Content Corner
thousands, millions, billions or trillions of bytes. Let's get a
little practice looking at files and how big they are.
NOTE: A 5-byte file is so small that some computers won't
allocate a chunk of memory that small. For example you

Activity (30 mins) might see something like this:

 Activity Guide: Bytes and File Sizes -

Activity Guide Which indicates that even though the file is 5 bytes, it's
Group: Put students in pairs to find answers or work taking up 4 Kilobytes of memory on your computer.
individually.

Distribute: Activity Guide: Bytes and File Sizes -  Content Corner

Activity Guide
There are some discrepancies in common usage of the
Introduces the terminology kilo, mega, giga prefixes.
Refers to websites for students to use as reference
From the Stanford CS 101 website :
Stanford CS 101 website
It's convenient within the computer to organize
Computer Hope
things in groups of powers of 2. For example, 210 is
Has questions and space for students to write 1024, and so a program might group 1024 items
answers to questions like: together, as a sort of "round" number of things
within the computer. The term "kilobyte" above
How many bytes are in a Megabyte? refers to this group size of 1024 things. However,
Give an example of a file type that is measured in people also group things by thousands -- 1
thousand or 1 million items.
Gigabytes
What is the typical size of a .jpg image, .mp3 There's this problem with the word "megabyte" ..
audio etc. does it mean 1024 * 1024 bytes, i.e. 2 20 which is
1,048,576, or does it mean exactly 1 million, 1000 *
Allow students time to finish this activity either
1000. It's just a 5% difference, but marketers tend
individually or in pairs by conducting online research. to prefer the 1 million, interpretation, since it
makes their hard drives etc. appear to hold a little
There are 6 practice questions on the 2nd page of
bit more. In an attempt to fix this, the terms
the activity guide.
"kibibyte" "mebibyte" "gibibyte" "tebibyte" have
been introduced to specifically mean the 1024
based units (see wikipedia kibibyte article). These
Wrap-up terms do not seem to have caught on very
strongly thus far.

Review worksheet If nothing else, remember that terms like "megabyte" have
this little wiggle room in them between the 1024 and 1000
Share: Provide students an opportunity to clear up any based meanings. For purposes of CS Principles the
remaining confusion and share interesting pieces of distinction is not important - "about a million
information they came across. bytes" is a fine, close-enough interpretation for
"megabyte".
Review: Answers to the questions on the Activity Guide.



Foreshadow Compression  Teaching Tip

 Remarks Finding Solutions: Note that answers to 3 of the 6

questions on the activity guide can be found on the
As you have seen data file size can grow very quickly Stanford CS 101 page linked to in the activity guide.
in size. In the modern world there is a lot of data around
us and usually we want it transmitted over the internet. Perfect accuracy is not important for some sections in this
activity, but using the correct terminology and achieving a
There is a problem though : If you want to transmit a
rough estimate of size (one million bytes vs. one billion) is
lot of data you are limited by the speed of your internet important. Encourage students to practice using terms like
connection. Even if you have a fast Internet connection
megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte to gain comfort with
there is a physical limit to how fast you can transmit them.
bits.
 What if the data you want to send is big enough that it
takes an unreasonable amount of time to transmit it,  Teaching Tip
even with a really fast internet connection. Assuming
Time Saving Tip: Time permitting you could do the
you can't make the Internet connection any faster,
warm up activity from the next lesson (Text Compression)
could you still transmit the data faster somehow?
 The answer is yes and it's probably something you've
done, or do every day!

Assessment
Use the last 3 questions on the activity guide for assessment.

Standards Alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
CT - Computational Thinking

Computer Science Principles

2.1 - A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

DA - Data & Analysis

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 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 2: Text Compression
Widget | Individual and Group Discovery

Overview View on Code Studio

At some point we reach a physical limit of how fast we can send bits Objectives
and if we want to send a large amount of information faster, we have
Students will be able to:
to find a way to represent the same information with fewer bits - we
must compress the data. Collaborate with a peer to find a solution to a
text compression problem using the Text
In this lesson, students will use the Text Compression Widget to Compression Widget (lossless compression
compress segments of English text by looking for patterns and
scheme).
substituting symbols for larger patterns of text. After some
Explain why the optimal amount of
experimentation students are asked to come up with a process (or
compression is impossible or “hard” to
algorithm) for arriving at a "good" amount of compression despite the identify.
fact that there is no way to know what is best or optimal. In developing Explain some factors that make compression
a so-called "heuristic approach" to this problem, students will grapple
challenging.
with the tradeoffs in compressing data and begin to develop a sense
Develop a strategy (heuristic algorithm) for
of computing problems that are “hard” to solve.
compressing text.

Purpose Describe the purpose and rationale for

lossless compression.
This is a big lesson that covers a lot of bases. It should easily take 2
or more days of class. First and foremost it covers two or three topics Preparation
directly from the CSP framework. Test out the Text Compression Widget
1. lossless compression Review the teaching tips to decide which
options you want to use
The basic principle behind compression is to develop a method or
protocol for using fewer bits to represent the original information. The
way we represent compressed data in this lesson, with a “dictionary”
Links
of repeated patterns is similar to the LZW compression scheme, Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
but it should be noted that LZW is slightly different from what students documents you plan to share with students.
do in this lesson. Students invent their own way here. LZW is used not
only for text (zip files), but also with the GIF image file format. For the Teacher
2. heuristics Activity Recap - Decode this Message -
Activity Recap Make a Copy
The lesson touches on computationally hard problems and heuristics
but please note that computationally hard problems and For the Students
heuristics will be revisited later on. A general "hand-wavy" Decode this message - Activity Guide
understanding is all that's needed from this lesson.
Make a Copy
We do want students to see, however, that there is no single correct Activity Guide - Text Compression -
way to compress text using the method we use in this lesson because Activity Guide Make a Copy
a) there is no known algorithm for finding an optimal solution, and b) Video: Text Compression with Aloe
we don’t even know a way to verify whether a given solution is Blacc - Video (download)
optimal. There is no way to prove it or derive it beyond trying all Activity Guide - Text Compression
possibilities by brute force. This is an example of an algorithm Heuristics - Activity Guide Make a Copy
that cannot run in a “reasonable amount of time” - one of the
CSP learning objectives. Vocabulary
3. Foreshadowing programming behaviors Heuristic - a problem solving approach
(algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution
Lastly, the Text Compression Activity is an important lesson to
where finding an optimal or exact solution is
refer back to when students start programming. The activity
impractical or impossible.
engages students in thinking and problem solving behaviors that
Lossless Compression - a data
foreshadow skills that are particularly useful for programming later
compression algorithm that allows the original
down the line. In particular, when students recognize patterns that
data to be perfectly reconstructed from the
repeat, and then represent those patterns as abstract symbols, and
compressed data.
then further recognize patterns within those patterns, it is very similar
to the kinds of abstractions we develop when writing functions and
procedures when programming. Decoding the message in the
warm-up activity is very similar to tracing a sequence of function calls
in a program.

Agenda
Getting Started (5-7 mins)
Warm up: Abbr In Ur Txt Msgs (5-7 mins)
Activity (45 mins)
Decode this Mystery Text (10-15 mins)
Use theText Compression Widget
Discuss properties and challenges with compression.
Activity 2 (30 mins)
Develop a heuristic for doing compression
What's best?
Wrap-up (20 mins)
Recap Questions
Compression in the Real World (.zip)
Assessment
Extended Learning
 Teaching Guide
Getting Started (5-7 mins)
Warm up: Abbr In Ur Txt Msgs (5-7 mins)
Prompt:
 Discussion
 "When you send text messages to a friend, do Goal
you spell every word correctly?" As a warm up to thinking about Text Compression,
connect to ways that most people already compress text in
Do you use abbreviations for common words? List
their lives, through abbreviations and acronyms with which
as many as you can. most people have some experience in text messages.
Write some examples of things you might see in a
Motivate some ideas about why someone would want to
text message that are not proper English. compress text.
Give students a minute to write, and to share with a
neighbor?

"Why do you use these abbreviations? What is the benefit?"

Possible answers:
to save characters/keystrokes
to hide from parents/teachers
to be cool, clever, funny
to “speak in code”
to say the same thing in less space

 What's this about? - Compression: Same Data, Fewer Bits

Today's class is about compression
When you abbreviate or use coded language to shorten the original text, you are “compressing text.” Computers do
this too, in order to save time and space.

The art and science of compression is about figuring out how to represent the SAME DATA with FEWER BITS.

Why is this important? One reason is that storage space is limited and you'd always prefer to use fewer bits if you
could. A much more compelling reason is that there is an upper limit to how fast bits can be transmitted over the
Internet.

What if we need to send a large amount of text faster over the Internet, but we’ve reached the physical limit of how fast
we can send bits? Our only choice is to somehow capture the same information with fewer bits; we call this
compression.

Transition:

Let's look at an example of a text message that's been compressed in a clever way.

Activity (45 mins)

Decode this Mystery Text (10-15 mins)
Distribute or Display the Activity guide: Decode this message - Activity Guide
Put students into partners or work individually.
Task: What was the original text?
Give students a few minutes to decode the text. The text should be a short poem (see activity recap below)
 Student Activity Guide Activity Recap

Distribute or Display Activity guide: (Display or draw yourself) Activity Recap:

Decode this message - Activity Activity Recap - Decode this Message -
Guide Activity Recap

Recap: How much was it compressed?

To answer, we need to compare the number of characters in the original poem to the number of characters needed to
represent the compressed version.

Let's break it down.

Display or Demonstrate yourself ideas from: Activity Recap - Decode this Message - Activity Recap (shown in
table above)

Important Note:

The compressed poem is not just this part: If you were to send this to someone
over the Internet they would not be able to decode it.
The full compressed text includes BOTH the compressed textand the key to solve it.
Thus, you must account for the total number of characters in the messageplus the total number of characters in the
key to see how much you've compressed it over the original.

Transition

Now you're going to get to try your hand at compressing some things on your own.

Use theText Compression Widget

 Code Studio levels

Lesson Overview  Student Overview

Text Compression  Student Overview

Widget: Text Compression  Student Overview

 Check Your Understanding 4 5 6 7

(click tabs to see student view)

Video: Text Compression with Aloe Blacc -

 Content Corner
Video
The video explains a little bit about compression in general
Video explains compression - the difference between lossless compression and lossy
Demonstrates the use of the Text Compression Tool. compression. Todays class is about lossless
NOTE: This video pops up automatically when compression we'll do lossy compression in a class or
two after looking at image encoding.
students visit the text compression stage in Code
Studio.

Divide students into groups of 2  Teaching Tip

Assign each pair one of the poems provided and
Teacher's Choice whether to show the video to the
challenge them, as a pair to compress their poem as
whole class or let students watch it from within Code
much as possible. Studio. There are benefits and drawbacks to each.
Deliver or put simple instructions on the board so
Option to Consider: Get students into the text
students can follow. compression tool BEFORE showing the video. You might
Challenge: compress your assigned poem as find students are more receptive to some of the
much as possible. information in the video if they have tried to use the tool
Compare with other groups to see if you can do first.
better. Communication and Collaboration: To develop
Try to develop a general strategy that will lead to a communication and collaboration between students,
good compression. include one of the following scenarios in class:
Have students who were assigned the same poem
 After some time, have pairs that did the same poem
compare results, or seat them in the same area of the
get together to compare schemes. As a group their
room.
job is to come up with the best compression for that
Have a little friendly competition - but be careful not to
poem for the class.
let “bad” competition seep in - to see which pair can
Optionally: you may hand out Activity Guide - Text compress a poem the most. Use a poem that none of
Compression - Activity Guide and have students the students have compressed yet.
complete it individually. It may work well as an out-of- For each poem, have the group(s) who did it figure out
class activity or assessment. the best in the class, and record it on the board or
somewhere that people can see.
Discuss properties and Have a class goal of getting the compression
challenges with compression. percentages for the four poems as high as possible.
Ask groups to pause to discuss the questions at the end The groups with the best compression percentages
of the activity. may be asked to share their strategy with the class.
Students may be reluctant to share if they feel they don’t
Prompts:
have the best results, but students should see others’
"What makes doing this compression hard?" work and offer advice and strategies.

Invite responses. Some of these issues should

surface: You can start in lots of different ways. Early choices affect later ones. Once you find one set of patterns,
others emerge.
There is a tipping point: you might be making progress compressing, but at some point the scale tips and the
dictionary starts to get so big that you lose the benefit of having it. But then you might start re-thinking the dictionary to
tweak some bits out.
"Do we think that these compression amounts that we’ve found are the the best? Is there a way to know
what the best compression is?"

We probably don’t know what’s best.

There are so many possibilities it’s hard to know. It turns out the only way to guarantee perfect compression is brute
 force. This means trying every possible set of substitutions. Even for small texts this will take far too long. The “best” is
really just the best we’ve found so far.
"But is there a process a person can follow to find the best (or a pretty good) compression for a piece of
text?"

Yes, but it’s imprecise -- you might leave this as a lingering question that leads to the next student task.

Activity 2 (30 mins)

Develop a heuristic for doing  Teaching Tip
compression
You may elect to not do this heuristic activity and instead
Distribute or Display: Activity Guide - Text
get the key take-aways (see Activity Goal below) across
Compression Heuristics - Activity Guide through discussion following the previous activity.
In computer science there is a word for strategies to use
when you're not sure what the exact or best solution to a
problem is.

Vocabulary: heuristic a problem solving approach (typically an algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where finding an
optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible.

Instructions:

Continue working on compressing your poem using the Text Compression Widget. As you do so, develop a set of
rules, or a “heuristic” that generally seems to provide good results.

Record your heuristic as a list of steps that someone else unfamiliar with the problem could follow and still end up
with decent compression.

Trade your heuristics with another group. Are

 Activity
they clear and specific enough that you always know
Goal
what to do? If not, provide feedback to one another The point here is to establish:
and improve your heuristics to provide clearer There is no real way to determine for sure that you've
instructions. got the best compression besides trying everything
Using another group’s heuristic, attempt to compress possible by brute force.
one or more of the poems in the tool. Record the Heuristics are techniques for at least making progress
amount of compression you achieve. toward a "good enough" solution.
Following the same heuristic might lead to different
What's best? results.

Share Findings:

Have one member of each group give a summary of their heuristic and the results on each of the poems. If time is limited,
these presentations can be done between groups instead in front of the entire class. The discussion questions below could
also be done group to group.

Reflection Prompts (from the Activity Guide)

 "Do you think it’s possible to describe (or write) a specific set of instructions that a person could follow
that would always result in better text compression than your heuristic? Why or why not?"

Some compression programs (like zip) do a great job if the file is sufficiently large and has reasonable amounts of
repetition.
However, it is also possible to create a “compressed file” that is larger than the original because the heuristic does work
in every single case.

"Is there a way to know that a compressed piece of text is compressed the most possible? If yes, describe
how you could determine it. If no, why not?"
 Stress that there is no perfect solution.
The size and shape of the data will determine what the “best” answer is and we often cannot even be sure it is the best
answer (only that it is better than other answers we have tried.)

Wrap-up (20 mins)

Recap Questions
"What did all groups’ processes for compression have in common?"

Pattern Recognition
Abstraction (patterns referring to other patterns)

"Will following this process always lead to the same compression? (i.e. two people following the process
for the same poem, will result in the same compression?)"

No. It’s imprecise, but still OK. The text still gets compressed, no matter what.
Since there is no way to know what’s best, all we need is a process that comes up with some solution, and a way to
make progress.

Terminology: Verify students know or use an *exit ticket on this vocabulary:

lossless compression v. lossy compression

heuristic

Compression in the Real World (.zip)

Zip Compression
 Teaching Tip
There is a compression algorithm called LZW
compression upon which the common “zip” utility is You do not have to review or demo LZW compression
based. Zip compression does something very similar in depth here. It is an interesting real-world application
to what you did today with the text compression of the activity done in class.
widget. While details of LZW compression are not part of the
Here is an animation of lzw in action. You can see AP course content, but the idea of lossless compression
the algorithm doesn't compress it the most, but it is is.
following a heuristic that will lead to better and better Recommendation: demonstrate zip quickly.
compression over time.
Have a large text file at the ready, such as the
Do you want to use zip compression for real? Most plaintext version of Hamlet
computers have it built in: Use the .zip utility on your computer to compress into a
Windows: select a file or group of files, right-click, zip file and then compare the file size to the original.
and choose “Send To...Compressed (zipped) (We learned how to do this in the previous lesson).
Folder.”
Mac: select a file or group of files, ctrl+click, and
choose “Compress Items.”
Warning: if you try this results may vary.

Zip works really well for text, but only on large files. If you try to compress the simple hello.txt file we used in a
previous lesson, you'll see the resulting file is actually bigger.
Zip is meant for text. It might not work well on non-text files very well because they are already compressed or don’t
have the same kinds of embedded patterns that text documents do.

Assessment
Code Studio: Assessment questions are available on the Code Studio
 Extended Learning
Real World: Zip Compression

Experiment with zip using text files with different contents. Are the results for small files as good as for large files? (On
Macs, in the Finder choose “get info” for a file to see the actual number of bytes in the file, since the Finder display will
show 4KB for any file that’s less than that.)
Warning: results may vary. Zip works really well for text, but it might not compress other files very well because they
are already compressed or don’t have the same kinds of embedded patterns that text documents do.

Challenge: Research the LZW algorithm

.zip compression is based on the LZW Compression Scheme

While the idea behind the text compression tool is similar to LZW (zip) algorithm, tracing the path of compression and
decompression is somewhat challenging. Learning more about LZW and what happens in the course of this algorithm
would be an excellent extension project for some individuals.

Standards Alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
CL - Collaboration
CPP - Computing Practice & Programming
CT - Computational Thinking

Computer Science Principles

2.1 - A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
2.2 - Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or create other computational artifacts
3.1 - People use computer programs to process information to gain insight and knowledge.
3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
4.2 - Algorithms can solve many but not all computational problems.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

DA - Data & Analysis

If you are interested in licensing Code.org materials for commercial purposes,contact us.
 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 3: Encoding B&W Images
Widget | Concept Invention | Individual Creation

Overview View on Code Studio

In this lesson, students will begin to explore the way digital images Objectives
are encoded in binary. The class begins by asking students to invent
Students will be able to:
their own image encoding protocol in order to familiarize themselves
with some of the subtle complications of encoding images, namely the Explain how images are encoded with pixel
need for other data, called metadata, that describes properties of the data.
image necessary for rendering it. Students will learn about pixels, Describe a pixel as an element of a digital
raster images, and what an image file format is. Students will encode image.
binary image data using a widget in Code Studio. Encode a B&W image in binary representing
both the pixel data (intensity) and metadata
Purpose (width, height).
Create the necessary metadata to represent
The main purpose of this lesson is for students to exhibit some the width and height of a digital image, using
creativity while getting some hands-on experience manipulating binary a computational tool.
data that represents something other than plain numbers or text. Explain why image width and height are
Connections to abstraction in data can be made here. Connections metadata for a digital image.
can be made back to file sizes and file formats here as well - e.g. how
many bytes does it take to store an image v. text? If you want to Preparation
broach the subject, the concept of data compression can come in
here too - it is interesting to think about how a black and white image (Optional) Graph or grid paper for drawing
might be compressed. You should be aware that this lesson largely pixel images by hand
acts a stepping stone to the next lesson which addresses how RGB KEY B&W Pixelation Widget
colors are represented in binary. KEY Extension: Magnify an Image
(optional)
Image file types have some similarities to data packets we saw in the
Internet unit -- because images must include metadata, or data about Links
the data. The data of a black-and-white image is the list of bits that
represent whether each pixel is on or off. To create the image, Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
however, we must also know how wide and tall the image is in order documents you plan to share with students.
to recreate it accurately. This necessitates the creation of a file format
which clearly defines how this metadata will be encoded, since it is For the Teacher
crucial for interpreting the subsequent data of the image. It is similar to Teaching Tips & Tricks Video -
how an internet packet doesn't only contain the data you need to Encoding Images - Video (download)
send, but must also include metadata like the to and from addresses
and packet number. For the Students
B&W Pixelation Widget - Activity Guide
Digital images can be stored in many formats, but one of the most
Make a Copy
common formats is "raster". Raster images store the image as an
Extension: Magnify an Image (optional)
array of individual pixels, each of which has a particular color. Higher-
- Activity Guide Make a Copy
quality images can be obtained by decreasing the size of the pixels
B&W Pixelation Tutorial - Video
(resolution). While full color will be addressed in the next lesson, an
(download)
important idea here is that images on computer screens are created
Invent a B&W image encoding scheme -
with light by illuminating pixels on the screen. This is why it is typical
Activity Guide Make a Copy
in a black and white image for the value 1 to represent white - it means
turn the light on - and 0 represents black - light off. If you were
Vocabulary
drawing on paper you might do the inverse. Image - A type of data used for graphics or
pictures.
Agenda metadata - is data that describes other data.
Getting Started (10 mins) For example, a digital image may include
Invent An Encoding Scheme for B&W Images metadata that describe the size of the image,
number of colors, or resolution.
Activity (40 mins)
Pixel - short for "picture element", the
Video: The Pixelation widget
fundamental unit of a digital image, typically a
Wrap-up (10 mins)
tiny square or dot that contains a single point
Assessment of color of a larger image.
Extended Learning
 Teaching Guide
Getting Started (10 mins)
 Remarks
Back in the Internet Unit you encoded a line-drawing image as a list of numbers that made up the coordinates of the
points in the image. That works for line drawings, but how might you encode a different kind of image? Today we’re going
to consider how you might use bits to encode a photographic image, or if you like: how could I encode vision?
Today, we're going to start to learn about images, but we're going to start simple, with black and white images.

Invent An Encoding Scheme for B&W Images

Distribute Invent a B&W image encoding
 Activity
scheme - Activity Guide
Goal
Separate students into pairs, and hand each student The purpose of this little concept invention activity is to be
a copy of the activity guide. creative and to get the mind moving. There is no exact
Students should work the first two pages right answer that we're going for here.
Give groups time to work There are many clever and interesting ways this could be
done. Most students will likely end up saying that each
Discuss: pixel should be represented with either a 0 or a 1.
Ask students to share-out their file format to identify But what we really want to draw out is the idea of
commonalities and patterns. "metadata". Simply encoding the pixel data is not enough.
We also need to encode the width and height of the
As a class, address students’ questions that arise image, or the image could not be recreated - other than
from the concept invention activity. through trial and error
Use the questions below to spur conversation. If the
concept of metadata, or data about data, arises
naturally, then address it here.

Prompts:

How have you encoded white and black portions of your image, what do 0 and 1 stand for in your encoding?
Are your encodings flexible enough to accommodate images of any size? * How do they accomplish this?
Is your encoding intuitive and easy to use?
Is your encoding efficient?

 Remarks
 Content Corner
 Vocabulary: each little dot that makes up a picture
There is some mystery about the etymology of the word
like this is called a pixel. Where did this word pixel
"pixel". You can read more about it on the Wikipedia:
come from? It turns out that originally the dots were pixel page
referred to as "picture elements", that got shortened
to "pict-el" and eventually "pixel".

What we've discovered is that the data for our image file must contain more than just a 0 or 1 for every pixel. It must
contain other data that describes the pixel data.

This is called metatdata. In this case the metadata encodes the width and height of the image.

We've seen forms of metadata before. For example: an internet packet. The packet contains the data that needs to be
sent, but also other data like the to and from address and packet number.

Activity (40 mins)

Introduction
 The pixelation widget in Code Studio will allow us to play with these ideas a little more.
This widget follows a particular encoding scheme for images that you'll have to follow.

Video: The Pixelation widget

Show the tutorial video: B&W Pixelation Tutorial - Video

NOTE: This video pops up the first time you visit the pixelation widget in Code Studio. You might perfer to have students
watch it there on their own.

 Code Studio levels

Levels
2
3
4

Student Instructions View on Code Studio



Task 1: Make a 3x5 letter

'A'
Start by trying to recreate the 3x5 letter "A" depicted (at right) using the
pixelation widget.

The image is initially setup with the incorrect dimensions. Your first task is to set the second byte to the 8-bit binary code
for 5: 0000 0101. Then you can start entering pixel data to make the A.

Student Instructions View on Code Studio



Oh no! An image got messed up

during transmission!
The problem: A single extra bit was inserted into the stream of bits that make up the C
of the Code.org logo.
That extra bit bumps all of the other bits down the line which makes the logo look messed
up.
Your task: Hunt down the extra bit and remove it to fix the Code.org logo.
HINT: One bit early on would make it look like many bits were out of order.

Student Instructions View on Code Studio



Make your own image

of any size

Directions:

Encode an image of anything you like.

You might want to do some planning and sketching with graph paper first.
DO NOT simply make an abstract pattern, like a checkerboard.
 Depict something, perhaps your name written out, your initials, an icon or logo of some sort.
Get creative! The image doesn't have to be a perfect square, it can be long and skinny.
Optional: for fun, send your image bits to a friend using the sending bits widget. (note: this is just a link to the
sending formatted text level from a couple of classes ago)

Distribute: Activity Guide - B&W Pixelation Widget - Activity Guide

 Activity Guide
Page 1:

Explains the encoding scheme and a bit about how the tool works.
Describes the 3 student tasks to get familiar with the tool:

1. Create a small image: Start by trying to recreate the 3x5 letter “A” depicted (shown above) using the pixelation
widget.
2. Correct an error: Oh no! An extra bit was inserted into an image during transmission! Track it down.
3. Make your own image of any size of anything you like.

The second page asks students to:

 Teaching Tip
Copy/paste a copy of their personal creation
Copy/paste the bits that are used to encode it You may not need or want to use the first page of the
Written reflection questions: activity guide. It is a reference for students, but the
tasks for students are given in Code Studio.
What are the largest dimensions (width and height)
Similarly for the second page, if you don't intend to
of an image we can make with the pixelation collect it for assessment purposes, you can use the
widget? questions as group discussion or wrap-up questions.
How many total bits would there be in the largest
possible image we could make with the pixelation
widget?
How many bits would it take to represent the smallest possible image (i.e. an image with one pixel)?
What would happen if we didn’t include width and height bits in our protocol? Assume your friend just sent you 32
bits of pixel data (just the 0s and 1s for black and white pixels). Could you recover the original image? If so, how?

Wrap-up (10 mins)

Review:

The image file protocol we used contains “metadata”: the width and height.Metadata is “data about the data” that
might be required to encode or decode the bits.

For example, you couldn’t render the B&W image properly without somehow including the dimensions. Prompts:

What other examples of metadata have we seen in the course so far?

What other types of data might we want to send that would require metadata?

(Optional) Prompt:

"Did you think about compression at all while doing this exercise? Can you think of a way that you might
represent an image of pixel data with fewer bits? What would have to change about the encoding
strategy?"

For an answer to this see the "Color by Numbers" Activity from CS Unplugged (csunplugged.org).
It uses something called "run-length encoding"

Assessment
Check students responses on: B&W Pixelation Widget - Activity Guide
 Check to make sure that the bits they submitted actually produce the image as claimed.
Score the digital artifact as you see fit, with points for creativity and perceived effort.
The following questions can be found in the Activity Guide and also appear on Code Studio
Answers these questions can be found here:KEY B&W Pixelation Widget

Using the B&W file format from the pixelation widget

What are the largest dimensions (width and height) of an image we can make with the pixelation widget?
How many total bits would there be in the largest possible image we could make with the pixelation widget?
How many bits would it take to represent the smallest possible image (i.e. an image with one pixel)?
What would happen if we didn’t include width and height bits in our protocol? Assume your friend just sent you 32 bits
of pixel data (just the 0s and 1s for black and white pixels). Could you recover the original image? If so, how?

Extended Learning
Check out the "Color by Numbers" from CS Unplugged (csunplugged.org) which uses a different clever encoding
scheme for B&W images.

Do the Extension: Magnify an Image (optional) - Activity Guide activity (double the size of an image on the
Pixelation Tool).
Have students research raster graphics in anticipation of the subsequent lesson.
Attempting to communicate with possible intelligent life beyond our solar system has been a dream for humans and the
goal of scientists for many years. Questions about messages to send, as well as how to send messages deep into space
to unknown recipients have been debated. In 1974, scientists sent the Arecibo message to the star cluster M13 some
25,000 light years away. Read about the message they sent using 1,679 binary digits
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message).
How would you change the content of the message? What would you delete and add? Why would your change be
significant in a communication to other intelligent beings?
Sketch the segment of the design you would alter. Remember, you must retain the original number of bits.
List the details in this article that you understand more deeply because of what you have learned in this class up to
this point.

Standards Alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
CL - Collaboration
CPP - Computing Practice & Programming
CT - Computational Thinking

Computer Science Principles

1.1 - Creative development can be an essential process for creating computational artifacts.
1.2 - Computing enables people to use creative development processes to create computational artifacts for creative expression or to solve a
problem.
1.3 - Computing can extend traditional forms of human expression and experience.
2.1 - A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
2.3 - Models and simulations use abstraction to generate new understanding and knowledge.
3.1 - People use computer programs to process information to gain insight and knowledge.
3.2 - Computing facilitates exploration and the discovery of connections in information.
3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

CS - Computing Systems
DA - Data & Analysis
If you are interested in licensing Code.org materials for commercial purposes,contact us.
 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 4: Encoding Color Images
Overview View on Code Studio

In this lesson students are asked to consider how color is represented Objectives
on a computer and to imagine how it might be encoded in binary.
Students will be able to:
Students then learn about how color is actually represented on a
computer - using the RGB color scheme - and create their own Use the Pixelation Tool to encode small color
images in an new version of the pixelation widget that allows you use images with varying bits-per-pixel settings.
more than 1 bit per pixel to represent color information. After grappling Explain the color encoding scheme for digital
with the prospect of possibly many bits just to represent a single pixel, images.
students are shown how using hexadecimal allows us to represent Use the Pixelation Tool to encode an image of
many bits with fewer characters. Students use a new version of the the student’s design.
pixelation tool to encode an image with color and create a personal Explain the benefits of using hexadecimal
favicon. numbers for representing long streams of bits.

Purpose Preparation
The main purpose here, similar to the B&W pixelation activity is for (Optional) Consider demonstrating the
students to get hands-on and "down and dirty" with bits. A major color pixelation widget instead of showing the
outcome will also be understanding the relationship between video.
hexadecimal (base-16) and binary (base-2), and how useful it is to use KEY Encoding Color Images
hex to represent groups of 4 bits. It's important to realize that using KEY Video Guide "A Little Bit About
hex is not a form of data compression, it's simply a different view into Pixels"
the bits. KEY Hexadecimal Numbers (optional)

The most common color representation scheme - RGB - typically uses Links
24 bits (3 bytes) with 8 bits each for Red, Green and Blue intensities.
And one of the most common ways you see these colors represented Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
is in hexadecimal. The pixelation widget, with its ability to choose how documents you plan to share with students.
many bits represent the color value for each pixel, can be a very
useful tool for showing the utility of hex representations for bits. For the Teacher

The process of rendering color on a computer screen by mixing red, Teaching Tips & Tricks Video -
green and blue light is an important concept of this lesson. The results Encoding Images - Video (download)
are not always intuitive, because mixing pigment and mixing colored For the Students
lights (like what’s on a computer screen) lead to different results.
A Little Bit about Pixels - Video
Another important objective of this lesson is to understand how (download)
(uncompressed) image file sizes can become quite large. For Worksheet - Video Guide for "A Little
example, even a relatively small image of 250x250 pixels is a total of Bit about Pixels" (optional) - Worksheet
62,500 pixels, each requiring up to three bytes (24 bits) or color Make a Copy
information, resulting in a total of 1.5 million bits to store one image! Encoding Color Images - Activity Guide
Thus, interesting connections to compression can be made here, but Make a Copy
note that lossy compression and image formats like .jpg are covered Hexadecimal Numbers (optional) -
in the next lesson. Activity Guide Make a Copy

Agenda Personal Favicon Project - Activity Guide

Make a Copy
Getting Started (5 mins) Rubric - Personal Favicon Project -
 Prompt: How might you encode colors? Rubric Make a Copy
Activity (40 mins)
Video: A Little Bit about Pixels Vocabulary
Color Pixelation Widget
Hexadecimal - A base-16 number system
Activity 2 (30-40 mins)
that uses sixteen distinct symbols 0-9 and A-F
Personal Favicon Project to represent numbers from 0 to 15.
Wrap-up Pixel - short for "picture element", the
Submit Favicon fundamental unit of a digital image, typically a
Gallery Walk tiny square or dot that contains a single point
Assessment of color of a larger image.
Extended Learning RGB - the RGB color model uses varying
intensities of (R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue light
are added together in to reproduce a broad
array of colors.
 Teaching Guide
Getting Started (5 mins)
Prompt: How might you encode colors?
Use a getting started strategy to address these
 Discussion
questions (for ideas consult: Teaching Strategies for
Goal
the CS Classroom - Resource) It is likely that many students will come up with an idea
like making a list of colors and just assigning a number to
In the previous lesson we came up with a simple each one. That is fine and reasonable.
encoding scheme for B&W images. What if we wanted
Some students may already be aware of a numeric RGB
to have color?
color scheme. If they can describe that here, that is fine as
Devise an encoding scheme for color in an image file. well.
How would you represent color for each pixel?
Regardless of their encoding, students should be thinking
How many different colors could you represent? Do about the number of bits they will allocate to the encoding
you have a particular order to the colors? and how that will affect the number of colors that can be
encoded.
Pair and share ideas

 Discuss some of the difficulties of representing color

Compare and contrast the different schemes students come up with.

Activity (40 mins)

 Remarks
The way color is represented in a computer is different from the ways we represented text or numbers. With text, we just
made a list of characters and assigned a number to each one. As you are about to see, with color, we actually use binary
to encode the physical phenomenon of LIGHT. You saw this a little bit in the previous lesson, but today we will see how to
make colors by mixing different amounts of colored light.

Video: A Little Bit about Pixels

Show the video: A Little Bit about Pixels - Video
Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram, explains pixels and RGB color.
(Optional) complete the video worksheet: Video Guide KEY for "A Little Bit about Pixels" - Answer Key

Discuss:

Following the video, you might address any questions (or give students time to complete the video worksheet)

Important ideas from this video include:

Image sharing services are a universal and powerful way of communicating all over the world.
Digital images are just data (lots of data) composed of layers of abstraction: pixels, RGB, binary.
The RGB color scheme is composed of red, green, and blue components that have a range of intensities from 0 to 255.
Screen resolution is the number of pixels and how they are arranged vertically and horizontally, and density is the
number of pixels per a given area.
Digital photo filters are not magic! Math is applied to RGB values to create new ones.

Color Pixelation Widget

Distribute the Activity Guide: Encoding Color Images - Activity Guide
Direct students to work in Code Studio.

 There are 3 tutorial videos that appear in Code Studio that guide students through using the widget.
This activity guides students through a few levels to get used to representing pixel data with more than one bit per pixel.
 It works up to full 24-bit RGB color and will present hexadecimal as a convenient way to represent binary information for
humans to read.

 Guide: Encoding Color Images

 Teaching Tip
Each of the items below are presented to students on
If you are comfortable you might consider
the activity guide and in Code Studio.
demonstrating the pixelation tool for each of the 3
Step 1: 3-bit color steps in the activity guide rather than having students
watch the tutorial video. Demonstrating might be a more
efficient and interactive/engaging way bring students
through each step.

Color Pixelation widget tutorial video - Part 1 - Video : How to use the pixelation widget to control color.
Task 1: Fill in the last two pixels with the missing colors
Step 2: 6-bit color

Color Pixelation widget tutorial video - Part 2 - Video : more bits per pixel for more colors
Task 2: Experiment with 6-bit color
Step 3: 12-bit color and Hex

Color Pixelation widget tutorial video - Part 3 - Video : Using hex to type bits more quickly
Task 3: Experiment with Hex

Activity 2 (30-40 mins)

Personal Favicon Project
Students will create a 16 by 16 pixel personal favicon in RGB color using the Pixelation Tool. This project will likely require
some time to complete, and should serve as a practice with hexadecimal numbers, metadata, and the underlying encoding
of images in a raster file.

Distribute the Activity Guide: Personal Favicon Project - Activity Guide

and review the criteria for the project.
Students will need a decent amount of work time to create their favicon. You might get them started in class and then
assign it as homework.

 Personal Favicon
(From the activity guide)

Directions

Create a personal 16x16 favicon and encode it using the Pixelation Widget on the final level of this lesson in Code
Studio.
 The
 Content Corner
image
you RGB color model - Additive Light
make Computer screens emit light, so when you mix RGB
should colors, you are really mixing light together. This is
counterintuitive for many students who have grown up
mixing paints in school. When you mix paint it absorbs
light.
It is illustrative to look at how you make black and white
with paint vs. light:
To make black: with paint, mix a full spectrum of colors
represent your personality in some distinctive way. together; with light, turn off all the lights.
You will be using this favicon in future lessons and To make white: with paint, don’t use any paint
web sites that you make, so be creative and (assuming canvas is white); with light, turn on all lights
thoughtful. for a full spectrum of color.
After you have finished your favicon, share it with This can make mixing colors a little bizarre too:
others in the class by sending them the bits with the
With paint, mix full red and full blue to make Purple
Internet Simulator Widget!
With light, mix full red and full blue to make Pink
Requirements
The Pixelation Tool is in RGB mode, as long as the
The icon must be 16x16 pixels. number of bits per pixel is a multiple of 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, etc.)
This allows for the same number of bits to be allocated to
You must use the Pixelation Widget to encode the
each color channel. Other bits-per-pixel settings will set
bits of color information. the image to grayscale, with more bits allowing finer
The image must be encoded with at least 12 bits per control over the shade of gray.
pixel. Hexadecimal Numbers:
Things to think about When working through the Activity Guide for the color
version of the Pixelation Tool, students will be introduced
A simple design with a few basic colors is probably
to the concept of hexadecimal numbers, so-called because
the best solution. How could you use more colors? there are 16 unique symbols that can appear in each place
Plan ahead: Sketch your design before starting to value, 0-9, A, B, C, D, E, and F.
encode the bits. You might want to use a tool to help
MISCONCEPTION ALERT
you draw small images. Suggestions:
It is important to note that hexadecimal numbers
Favicon Maker: http://www.favicon.cc/
are used to aid humans in reading longer strings of
Make Pixel Art: bits, but they in no way change the underlying
http://makepixelart.com/free/ data being represented. Instead, they allow us to
read 4 bits at a time rather than 1, and so allow us
to more easily parse binary information.
Wrap-up Hexadecimal representation is NOT a form of
compression, since the underlying binary
representation is not changing at all. Rather it is a
Submit Favicon more convenient way of representing that binary
information when humans need to read and
You should ask students to submit a .png version of their interact with it.
favicon, blown up to a larger size. And ask them to send
You may wish to separately address this topic as a class.
you the bits that made up the image. Students can practice with the Hexadecimal Odometer
and can complete this Hexadecimal Numbers
Gallery Walk (optional) - Activity Guide if you deem more practice
necessary.
With the images you can make a class favicon “quilt”
by printing them out.
And you can copy/paste the bits into the pixelation tool to verify that image is correct.

Assessment
 Questions:

How many bits (or bytes) are required to encode an image that is 25 pixels wide and 50 pixels tall, if you encode it with
24 bits per pixel?
To help students understand how quickly the bit size of images expands as the image is enlarged, start with smaller
numbers (5 X 10) and then incrementally increase the width and height to illustrate the concept.
Imagine that you have an image that is too dark or too bright. Describe how you would alter the RGB settings to brighten
or darken it. Give an example.

Extended Learning
If you had to send your favicon using the sending bits widget, it would probably take a long time. Could you compress
your image? How? Describe in broad strokes the kinds of things you could do.
Read Blown to Bits (www.bitsbook.com), Chapter 3 , Ghosts in the Machine, pp. 95-99 (Hiding Information in
Images), then answer the following questions:
Besides hiding information sent to others, what other uses can steganography have for everyday users? For example,
what uses would steganography have for an American businessman in China?

Standards Alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
CL - Collaboration
CPP - Computing Practice & Programming
CT - Computational Thinking

Computer Science Principles

1.1 - Creative development can be an essential process for creating computational artifacts.
1.2 - Computing enables people to use creative development processes to create computational artifacts for creative expression or to solve a
problem.
1.3 - Computing can extend traditional forms of human expression and experience.
2.1 - A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
2.2 - Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or create other computational artifacts
2.3 - Models and simulations use abstraction to generate new understanding and knowledge.
3.1 - People use computer programs to process information to gain insight and knowledge.
3.2 - Computing facilitates exploration and the discovery of connections in information.
3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

CS - Computing Systems
DA - Data & Analysis

If you are interested in licensing Code.org materials for commercial purposes,contact us.
 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 5: Lossy vs. Lossless Compression
Research

Overview View on Code Studio

Students learn the difference between lossy and lossless Objectives

compression by experimenting with a simple lossy compression
Students will be able to:
widget for compressing text. Students then research three real-world
compressed file formats to fill in a research guide. Throughout the Explain the difference between lossy and
process they review the skills and strategies used to research lossless compression.
computer science topics online, in particular to cope with situations Explain the relative benefits or drawbacks of
when they don't have the background to fully understand everything different file formats, particularly in terms of
they're reading (a common situation even for experienced CS how they compress information.
students). Identify reliable sources of information when
doing research
Purpose Explain the difference between open source
and licensed software.
The first goal of this lesson is straightforward: understand what lossy
compression is and when/why it might be used. Students should see Preparation
a number of examples of this distinction throughout the lesson and
should leave the lesson being able to describe the relative benefits of Prepare print or digital copies of File
each. Formats and Compression Activity Guide
KEY File Formats and Compression
The second goal of this lesson is to build up students' research skills
both for the project they will complete in the next lesson and for the Links
Explore PT at the end of the year. Students will need practice finding
reliable sources, reading technical articles, and synthesizing Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
information. The teacher's role in calling out the skills being used, not documents you plan to share with students.
merely the facts being found, is significant.
For the Students
Agenda Lossy Text Compression App - App Lab
Getting Started (15 mins) File Formats and Compression - Activity
Guide Make a Copy
Quick Discovery: Lossy Text Compression
Lossless vs. Lossy Compression
Activity (40 mins)
Vocabulary
Wrap-up (5 mins) Lossless Compression - a data
compression algorithm that allows the original
data to be perfectly reconstructed from the
compressed data.
Lossy Compression - (or irreversible
compression) a data compression method
that uses inexact approximations, discarding
some data to represent the content. Most
commonly seen in image formats like .jpg.
 Teaching Guide
Getting Started (15 mins)
Quick Discovery: Lossy Text  Discussion
Compression Goal
Goal: As you circulate first make sure that all groups try
Prompt: With a partner, go to the Lossy Text
typing their own text into the app. They should see that the
Compression App - App Lab. Use it for a couple app keeps the first character of every word but then
minutes, discuss with your partner what's happening, and removes all vowels.
then answer the following questions. During the share out aim to hear from multiple groups. If
Should this “count” as text compression? Why or why you ask leading questions you might direct the
conversation towards the following points.
not?
What do you think the word “lossy” refers to? The text is certainly "smaller" than before so at least it
might be compression.
 Discuss: Give pairs of students a couple minutes to
This is different from what they saw with the text
explore the app. Then ask discuss what they are seeing.
compression widget though. Some information is being
Finally ask them to write down brief responses to the two
entirely thrown away and if you only had the
prompts. Once all pairs have had a chance to write
compressed text there's no way to get back the original
responses have a few groups share opinions with the
text.
groups.
That said, you can usually still read the text. The
meaning hasn't been lost even if some parts of the
Lossless vs. Lossy Compression original message could never be perfectly recovered.
 Remarks The word "lossy" probably has something to do with the
fact that some letters (information) are entirely lost
This is an example of compression since the total
here.
number of bits needed to represent the message is
reduced. As we've seen, though, it's different than the Your goal in this discussion isn't that students arrive at a
compression we saw with the text compression widget. definition. You're aiming for all students to see that this
The text compression widget uses "lossless" type of compression is different from what they've seen
compression. This means that it is possible to reverse before and prep them all for the following remarks.
the compression and recover the original information
(message) in its entirety. This is what the dictionary
was for.
The text compression we just saw is "lossy" compression. This means that it isn't possible to perfectly reverse the
compression and recover the original (message). Some of it is lost forever. If you saw the word “fd” it could be “food”,
“feed”, “feud”, or “fad”. You might be able to guess what it was supposed to be, but there’s no algorithm that will always
give you the original message.
Vocabulary: Display these definitions

Lossless Compression: a data compression algorithm that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from
the compressed data.
Lossy Compression: (or irreversible compression) a data compression method that uses inexact approximations,
discarding some data to represent the content. Most commonly seen in image formats like .jpg.

 Prompt: Have students briefly discuss the prompt below with a neighbor.

When you use lossy compression you lose the ability to decompress your information and get back a perfect copy. Even
so, people use lossy compression all the time. Can you think of reasons or situations where someone would still use
lossy compression?

Discuss: Have pairs briefly discuss with one another. Circulate and listen to ideas as they're discussed. Then have a couple
groups share with the whole room.

Transition: We’ve been looking at image file formats. And we’ve also seen text compression. Both of those attempted to
render perfectly every piece of information.
 Both the image file format and the text compression scheme we used werelossless. Lossy compression schemes usually
 Discussion
take advantage of the fact that a human is supposed to
Goal
interpret the data at the other end, and human brains are Goal: This prompt serves two roles. It first should get
good at filling the gaps when information is missing. students a chance to practice using the vocabulary you
just introduced. Use their responses to judge whether
students understand the distinction between the two types
Activity (40 mins) of compression. If necessary review the two before
continuing to the main activity.
Secondly it prompts students to begin thinking critically
Group: Place students in pairs. Each group will only about the tradeoffs of the two compression types which
need a single computer. they will be doing for the remainder of the lesson.
Distribute: File Formats and Compression -
Activity Guide to each group.
 Content Corner
 Rapid Research - Compression Formats
Formats in Everyday Life: The file extension you often
JPG: Ask all groups to research the answers to the first see on a file (for example: myPhoto.jpg) is really just an
column in the activity guide together. In particular indicator to the computer of how the underlying bits are
remind them to keep track of their sources of organized, so the computer can interpret them. If you
information. change the name of the file to myPhoto.gif, that does not
magically change the underlying bits; all you’ve done is
Share: Have pairs share their answers with another confuse the computer. It won’t be able to open the file
pair. If there are disagreements have them discuss with because it will attempt to interpret the file as a GIF when
really the bits are in JPG format.
one another the sources of their information and try to
arrive at a shared solution.

Discuss: Share the solution to the first column as a class. Resolve any discrepancies. Afterwards briefly acknowledge the
following points.

JPG is lossy compression. Many images on the web are converted to JPG. Odds are if you've seen a grainy or
pixelated image on the Internet, it's a JPG.
Lossy compression like this results in a lower quality image with fewer details, but as humans we can still tell what's in
the picture. Especially in instances where you don't need a high quality image and bandwidth is limited JPG makes a
lot of sense.
This is a free and open format, but even so there have been disputes about its ownership.

 Prompt: Let's think for a minute about how you are

 Discussion
doing your research. What kinds of sources are you
Goal
finding? How are you actually reading these sources? Researching CS Topics: When researching a computer
science topic (e.g. as students will have to do on the
Discuss: Have students briefly share their thoughts at Explore PT) it is important to remember that this is a
their tables before discussing as a class. Use the unique and separate skill. It often requires students to
discussion to lead into to the comments below. read text that they don't completely understand or which
uses advanced vocabulary. At other times they'll need to
 Remarks consult sources typically considered unreliable like online
Conducting research online about CS topics is a skill. forums or Wikipedia. Part of the goal of this lesson is
Often it means hunting through articles you don't calling out the fact that this is a separate skill, practicing
completely understand for the key pieces of the individual component, and preparing students to do it
information that you do. Other subjects like history or more independently in the following lesson.
math may have classic agreed upon texts but in the
world of CS you'll often end up on Wikipedia or online
forums. This is ok. We're going to keep working on this skill of reading technical articles. If you sometimes are confused
that's ok and entirely normal. There is no one on earth who understands everything about CS with how large a subject it
is and how quickly it's changing. When you're doing research as a computer scientist it usually means sticking with it
even if a lot of the content doesn't make sense at first.
MP3 and PNG: Have pairs fill in the MP3 and PNG columns of the table.

Share: Once both columns have been filled out have pairs share their results across the table again.

Discuss: Share out the results of the research with the whole class, reviewing the results.

Wrap-up (5 mins)  Teaching Tip

Record Research Strategies: Throughout this activity

 Prompt: Lossy compression seems to be "worse" than consider writing and recording strategies that students are
lossless compression but obviously both are being used using in order to conduct their research. This could be on
all the time. Write down three reasons or situations where a poster, the board, or some kind of shared digital notes.
Students are going to have another chance to research
someone would be willing to use lossy compression even
formats in the following lesson, so an important goal in
though it means some loss of quality. this lesson is highlighting how students are succeeding at
Discuss: Students should silently list their responses, doing this research, not just the information they're
finding.
then share with a neighbor, then finally discuss with the
entire class. Have multiple pairs or tables share their
responses.
 Discussion
 Remarks Goal
Goal: This discussion is primarily a way to check that
Today we accomplished a lot. We explored the students have understood the difference between lossy
difference between lossy and lossless compression, we and lossless compression. Lossy compression is fine if
practiced reading and researching a CS topic, and we you just need a "good enough" version of something and
learned a little bit about the complicated world of file care about saving space or bandwidth. For example, if you
formats! Next time we'll close out this unit by digging a don't want to use up the data plan on your phone you
little deeper on all of these topics. would use compressed images.

Standards Alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
CD - Computers & Communication Devices
CL - Collaboration
CT - Computational Thinking

Computer Science Principles

3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
7.3 - Computing has a global affect -- both beneficial and harmful -- on people and society.
7.5 - An investigative process is aided by effective organization and selection of resources. Appropriate technologies and tools facilitate the
accessing of information and enable the ability to evaluate the credibility of sources.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

AP - Algorithms & Programming
DA - Data & Analysis

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 UNIT Ch. 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2
Lesson 6: Rapid Research - Format
Showdown
Project | Research

Overview View on Code Studio

In this lesson students will conduct a small amount of research to Objectives

explore a file format either currently in use or from history. Students
Students will be able to:
will conduct research in order to complete a "one-pager" that
summarizes their findings. They will also design a computational Identify reliable sources of information when
artifact (video, audio, graphic, etc.) that succinctly summarizes the doing research
advantages of their format over other similar ones. Synthesize information taken from multiple
online sources
This lesson is intended to be a quick, short version of a performance Create an artifact (video, image, slide, poster,
task in which students rapidly do some research and respond in etc.) to communicate information about a
writing. It might take 2 class days but should not take more. The goal
computing topic.
is to develop skills that students will use when they complete the
actual Explore PT later in the year. Preparation
Purpose Prepare printed / digital copies of the
Rapid Research - Format Showdown -
This lesson concludes Unit 2's investigation of file sizes, formats, Activity Guide and Rapid Research -
metadata, and compression. The activity is designed for students to Format Showdown - One-pager
practice research skills that will be beneficial when completing the Template to share with students
Explore PT while also applying the knowledge they have developed
across the unit. The "showdown" aspect of the project is designed to Links
both encourage students to think more deeply about the inherent
tradeoffs of different file formats and also provide a motivating context Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
in which to perform their research. The computational artifact documents you plan to share with students.
completed in this project has a direct parallel to the computational
artifact students are expected to design for the Explore PT. For the Students
Rapid Research - Format Showdown -
Agenda Activity Guide Make a Copy
Warm Up (5 mins) Rapid Research - Format Showdown -
Activity (90 mins) One-pager Template Make a Copy

Rapid Research - Format Showdown

Day 1 - Choose Format, Research, Begin One-Pager
Day 2 - Complete One-pager and Computational
Artifact
Wrap Up (10-60 mins)
Presentation (Optional):
 Teaching Guide
Warm Up (5 mins)
Prompt: Imagine I was comparing two different file formats for representing images. All I tell you that one of them is
"better" than the other. Based on everything that you've learned in this unit, what might "better" mean? Try to come up with
at least three ideas and incorporate vocabulary from the unit.

 Discuss: Have students quietly write their responses,

 Discussion
then share with a neighbor, then discuss with the class.
Goal
Some potential responses might include: Goal: There's no expectation that students come up with
every reason listed. The goal is to get students in the
Better compression ratio or better quality image even mindset of comparing formats. This discussion should also
when compressed highlight that there's lots of different ways to consider one
Can hold larger or more complex types of information format better than the other. This is also why there's so
Different kinds of metadata many different formats!
Includes features not found in other formats
Used by more people
Open, no licensing fees
Newer and optimized for modern technology

 Remarks
Today we're going to dig a little deeper into this question by doing a Rapid Research project. Not only are you going to
research your own file format, you're going to make the case why yours is the best!

Activity (90 mins)

Rapid Research - Format Showdown
Distribute: Rapid Research - Format Showdown - Activity Guide and Rapid Research - Format Showdown -
One-pager Template and review as a class.

Below is a suggested schedule for completing the project.

 Teaching Tip

Day 1 - Choose Format, Differences from the actual Explore PT: The actual
Research, Begin One-Pager Explore Performance Task will be completed over 8 class
hours. The fact that this schedule is significantly shorter
Review Activity Guide and Rubric: reflects several differences in this Practice PT.
At the beginning of the project, emphasize the Students are not choosing a computing innovation by
importance of reviewing the one-pager template and the College Board's definition (file formats and protocols
rubric. Students may assume that more is required of do not process data, include program code, etc.)
them than is actually the case. Students are not completing most of the prompts of the
Explore PT
Choosing Your Format: It is recommended that you
Research in this project is presumed to be less detailed
place a time limit on this process (e.g. 10 minutes). You
may even consider simply assigning formats yourself.
They are all essentially equivalent in terms of difficulty. There's minimal difference in terms of "quality" so long as students
take a creative angle towards the presentation. All these formats have been used by someone at some point, so their job
is to find out why and creatively play up that angle.

 Conduct Your Research: This document is intended to serve primarily as a guide to students for identifying online
sources of information. The skill students need to develop is identifying useful resources on their own and then
synthesizing this information. Being presented with a structured way of doing this means students will have a model for
how to complete their research when completing the actual Explore PT.
 The "Key Information to Find" highlights specific terminology from the Explore PT that students will benefit from having
 Teaching Tip
seen earlier in the course.
Reinforce Research Skills from the Previous
Begin One-Pager: Have students begin working on
Lesson: As students saw in the previous lesson,
filling in the details of their one-pager as they research. performing research on computing topics is a skill unto
itself. Reinforce skills reviewed in the previous lesson as
Day 2 - Complete One-pager students move to this part of the activity.
and Computational Artifact
Complete One-Pager: Students should continue filling in their one-pagers. Remind students to record their sources of
information as they go.

Computational Artifact: Decide if you will encourage students to all create separate kinds of computational artifacts or
if they will do them in a unified way. You might have everyone create a slide, a short video (e.g. a 30 second "campaign
ad" for their format) etc. Remind students of the requirements for this artifact (noted below):

A list of other formats you’d specifically like to target in your computational artifact
Three key points you’d like to make in your artifact explaining the benefits of your format

Wrap Up (10-60 mins)

 Presentation (Optional):  Teaching Tip
If time allows, students may wish to have an opportunity
Timing Consideration: Having opportuities to share
to share their one-pagers and computational artifacts with
work promotes a communal classroom atmosphere but be
one another. Consider other options like creating a “File thoughtful about time. If you feel you are not pressed for
Formats Hall of Fame” by posting links to all their time using a full class period for presentations may be a
documents in single shared document. Or even print great way to end the unit, but otherwise you may be
them out and post them in the room to be reviewed in a looking for a quicker way to share highlights from this
project.
gallery walk.

Standards Alignment
Computer Science Principles
1.1 - Creative development can be an essential process for creating computational artifacts.
1.2 - Computing enables people to use creative development processes to create computational artifacts for creative expression or to solve a
problem.
2.1 - A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data.
2.2 - Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or create other computational artifacts
3.2 - Computing facilitates exploration and the discovery of connections in information.
3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
7.3 - Computing has a global affect -- both beneficial and harmful -- on people and society.
7.5 - An investigative process is aided by effective organization and selection of resources. Appropriate technologies and tools facilitate the
accessing of information and enable the ability to evaluate the credibility of sources.

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

AP - Algorithms & Programming
DA - Data & Analysis

If you are interested in licensing Code.org materials for commercial purposes,contact us.