VB.Net Programming & Bitmaps (Cover or teacher-led lessons, set of 4)

4 lessons that use a simple VB.Net programming task to explore how bitmap images are encoded.

These lessons can be used as a set of cover lessons for a more able class who are able to debug and manage their own code , or as a set of guided lessons for other groups.

I have succesfully used these lessons with most of Year 9 groups and my Year 10 GCSE class. They were extremely excited in the last lesson to be able to read each others’ bitmap files.

Lesson 1: Shows how a bitmap is encoded using a spreadsheet to do it (A paper version is also included). The pupils will end up with a text file full of binary to represent a bitmap
Lesson 2: Has the pupils read data from the file in their VB.Net program and iterate through each line
Lesson 3: The pupils will use nested iteration to be able to access each separate bit
Lesson 4: The pupils will use procedures and selection to use the bits and “draw pixels” on a console screen

Also included with this pack of lessons:

• Bonus extension tasks - increasing colour-depth or changing the image resolution
• Final project source code
• Spreadsheet model to refer to
• Paper version of spreadsheet task
• Basic spreadsheet guide in lesson 1 to be able to complete the lesson

I will update these lessons with C# and Python code listings at a later date.

If you find these lessons useful please leave a review.

If you have any feedback on how to improve the lessons, please let me know; I appreciate the thought.