Self-marking Binary Conversion Spreadsheet-based activity

An Excel spreadsheet containing seven worksheets covering binary to denary and denary to binary conversions and representing images and letters using binary.

First worksheet takes students through basic binary to denary conversion using the concept of bulbs being switched on and off to represent 1s and 0s. Students are shown worked examples and provided with four questions to answer. They are given feedback on their answers, and when they have answered all questions correctly on the worksheet, the tab will turn green. This allows teachers to see progress easily and where students have moved on before getting 100% success in the previous tab. It also encourages students to persevere and compete with neighbours to ‘go green’ first.

Tab two introduces denary to binary conversion where students switch bulbs on and off to create the binary number for four denary numbers. Worked examples are provided and feedback given. Tab turns green when completed successfully.

Tabs three and four provide more practice of conversion with 8 questions with feedback on each. No bulbs to prompt this time.

Tab five provides more practice with another 11 questions, the last five without scaffolding.

Tab six is an extension task for students to try converting denary into binary then finding the letter represented by the code to discover the password.

Tab seven is an extension task where students can colour pixels using binary and then try creating their own image using binary.

NOTE: The spreadsheet uses macros which must be enabled in order to activate the feedback and tab colouring on completion of tasks.

Used successfully with GCSE Computer Science students and with Level 3 IT Year 12 students.
Also available – Binary to Hexadecimal conversion and Binary Addition spreadsheet activities.

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